Dynamic suggested search queries on online social networks

ABSTRACT

In one embodiment, a method includes accessing a social graph that includes a plurality of nodes and edges, generating a plurality of structured queries, where each structured query comprises references to nodes and edges of the social graph, and where at least one of the structured queries is a dynamic query comprising a reference to one or more to the social graph, and sending one or more of the structured queries to a user for display, where at least one of the sent structured queries is a dynamic query.

PRIORITY

This application is a continuation-in-part under 35 U.S.C. §120 of U.S.patent application Ser. No. 13/732,175, filed 31 Dec. 2012, which is acontinuation-in-part under 35 U.S.C. §120 of U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 13/556,046, filed 23 Jul. 2012, which is a continuation-in-partunder 35 U.S.C. §120 of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/763,162,filed 19 Apr. 2010, issued as U.S. Pat. No. 8,572,129 on 29 Oct. 2013,each of which is incorporated by reference.

TECHNICAL FIELD

This disclosure generally relates to social graphs and performingsearches for objects within a social-networking environment.

BACKGROUND

A social-networking system, which may include a social-networkingwebsite, may enable its users (such as persons or organizations) tointeract with it and with each other through it. The social-networkingsystem may, with input from a user, create and store in thesocial-networking system a user profile associated with the user. Theuser profile may include demographic information, communication-channelinformation, and information on personal interests of the user. Thesocial-networking system may also, with input from a user, create andstore a record of relationships of the user with other users of thesocial-networking system, as well as provide services (e.g. wall posts,photo-sharing, event organization, messaging, games, or advertisements)to facilitate social interaction between or among users.

The social-networking system may send over one or more networks contentor messages related to its services to a mobile or other computingdevice of a user. A user may also install software applications on amobile or other computing device of the user for accessing a userprofile of the user and other data within the social-networking system.The social-networking system may generate a personalized set of contentobjects to display to a user, such as a newsfeed of aggregated storiesof other users connected to the user.

Social-graph analysis views social relationships in terms of networktheory consisting of nodes and edges. Nodes represent the individualactors within the networks, and edges represent the relationshipsbetween the actors. The resulting graph-based structures are often verycomplex. There can be many types of nodes and many types of edges forconnecting nodes. In its simplest form, a social graph is a map of allof the relevant edges between all the nodes being studied.

SUMMARY OF PARTICULAR EMBODIMENTS

In particular embodiments, a social-networking system may generatestructured queries that include references to particular social-graphelements. These structured queries may be generated, for example, inresponse to a text query provided by a user, or generated as defaultqueries. By providing suggested structured queries to a user's textquery, the social-networking system may provide a powerful way for usersof an online social network to search for elements represented in asocial graph based on their social-graph attributes and their relationto various social-graph elements.

In particular embodiments, the social-networking system may generate aset of default structured queries for a page of the online socialnetwork. The social-networking system may identify a page that a user iscurrently viewing or otherwise accessing and then identifying anysocial-graph elements corresponding to that page. The social-graphelements corresponding to a page may be, for example, the nodecorresponding to a user- or concept-profile page, or the nodes/edgesreferenced in a structured query used to generate a particularsearch-results page. The social-networking system may then generate aset of default structured queries for the page based on the identifiedsocial-graph elements for that page. For example, when accessing auser-profile page for the user “Mark”, some of the default structuredqueries for that page may include “Friends of Mark” or “Photos of Mark”.These default structured queries may then be sent and displayed to theuser.

In particular embodiments, the social-networking system may generatesuggested structured queries for a user based on user-engagementfactors. It may be desirable for the social-networking system to provideusers with structured queries that are more interesting to the user andthus more likely to be engaged with (e.g., selected or clicked-thru). Avariety of factors may be used to increase user engagement, such as, forexample, business-intelligence, user-preference/history, social-graphaffinity, advertising sponsorship, or other suitable factors may be usedto determine which suggested queries to serve to the user. Thesocial-networking system may calculate which structured queries are morelikely to be engaged with by a user, and then send suggested queries tothe user that the user is more likely to engage with.

In particular embodiments, the social-networking system may generatesponsored queries for a user. An advertiser may identify a company,brand, product, event, person, or other thing that the advertiser isassociated with or wants to sponsor. The social-networking system maythen identify social-graph elements corresponding to the thing theadvertiser wants to sponsor and generate one or more structured queriesreferencing the identified social-graph elements. For example, anadvertiser associated with the application “Online Poker” may want tosponsor queries referencing the application. In response to receiving anindication the advertiser wants to sponsor queries referencing “OnlinePoker”, the social-networking system may identify a node in a socialgraph corresponding to the “Online Poker” application. One or moresponsored queries referencing the identified social-graph element maythen be generated. For example, the social-networking system maygenerate a sponsored query “My friends who play Online Poker”, where thereference to “Online Poker” is a reference to the social-graph entitycorresponding to the application “Online Poker.” These sponsored queriesmay then be sent to the querying user and displayed on a page accessedby the user.

In particular embodiments, the social-networking system may generatedynamic queries for a user. A dynamic query is a type of structuredquery that references additions, changes, or other updates to objectsassociated with the online social network. Dynamic queries may relate totrending activity or trending queries by other users on the onlinesocial network, such as, for example, “Posts by my friends about [newsstory from yesterday]” or “Photos of my friend in [location where thequerying user just visited]”. Dynamic queries may also be related torecent/timely content. For example, the structured query “Recent photosof my friends (+2)” is a dynamic query referencing recently addedcontent to the online social network, where the reference to “(+2)”indicates the number of new photos that the query will produce.Similarly, the dynamic queries may relate to changes to search results,either over time or since the query was last run. Dynamic queries mayprovide an elegant way for users of the online social network to seethat particular updates have occurred or are occurring on the onlinesocial network.

In particular embodiments, the social-networking system may allow usersto share structured queries and search results with other users of theonline social network. Users of the online social network may want toshare structured queries and their corresponding search results withother users of the online social network, allowing those users to viewthe query and/or search results. The social-networking system mayreceive a selection from a first user of a structured query that thefirst user wants to share with one or more second users of the onlinesocial network. Structured queries and search results may be shared withany suitable users of the online social network, such as, for example,users within a threshold degree of separation of the first user,particular groups or networks, or publically. The social-networkingsystem may then send the selected structured query to one or more secondusers. For example, a first user may select a particular structuredquery, such as “My friends who work at Facebook”. The social-networkingsystem may then generate search results corresponding to that structuredquery. The search-results page may include an activatable link allowingthe first user to share the structured query and/or search resultsdirectly from the search-results page, such as a “Share this search withyour friends!” link. The first user may select this link, and inresponse the social-networking system may share the structured query andone or more of the search results by displaying them a page of a seconduser, such as the second user's newsfeed page. The second user may thenselect the shared query, which may then be executed by thesocial-networking system for the second user.

In particular embodiments, the social-networking system may generatestructured queries that are displayed with previews of the searchresults corresponding to the queries. When a structured query isgenerated, the social-networking system may also generate search resultscorresponding to one or more of the structured queries. The searchresults may be generated concurrently with the structured queries, or inresponse to a selection (e.g., mousing over) of one of the structuredqueries by the querying user. The structured queries and search resultscould then be sent to the querying user for display, where one or moreof the queries could be displayed with a preview of the search resultscorresponding to the query. The preview could be displayed in anysuitable manner. For example, the querying user may mouse-over astructured query and a preview for that structured query may begenerated and displayed just below the query, where the preview may showthe names and thumbnail photos of some of the matching search results.Previews of search results may be displayed in association with anysuitable type of search query. Furthermore, if a structured query isshared with other users, the shared structured query may be displayedwith a preview of the search results. By generating previews to displaywith structured queries, the social-networking system may provide an aquick and convenient way for users of the online social network toreview search results for a particular query.

The embodiments disclosed above are only examples, and the scope of thisdisclosure is not limited to them. Particular embodiments may includeall, some, or none of the components, elements, features, functions,operations, or steps of the embodiments disclosed above.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates an example network environment associated with asocial-networking system.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example social graph.

FIG. 3 illustrates an example page of an online social network.

FIGS. 4A-4B illustrate example queries of the social network.

FIGS. 5A-5D illustrate example pages of an online social network.

FIG. 6 illustrates an example method for generating default structuredsearch queries for a page.

FIGS. 7A-7C illustrate example default queries of the online socialnetwork.

FIG. 8 illustrates an example method for generating default structuredsearch queries for a user.

FIG. 9 illustrates an example method for generating sponsored structuredqueries for a user.

FIGS. 10A-10B illustrate example default queries and example searchresults of the online social network.

FIG. 11 illustrates an example method for generating dynamic structuredqueries for a user.

FIGS. 12A-12C illustrate example pages of an online social network.

FIG. 13 illustrates an example method for sharing search queries on anonline social network.

FIG. 14 illustrates an example method for generating search queries withpreviews of search results.

FIG. 15 illustrates an example computer system.

DESCRIPTION OF EXAMPLE EMBODIMENTS

System Overview

FIG. 1 illustrates an example network environment 100 associated with asocial-networking system. Network environment 100 includes a clientsystem 130, a social-networking system 160, and a third-party system 170connected to each other by a network 110. Although FIG. 1 illustrates aparticular arrangement of client system 130, social-networking system160, third-party system 170, and network 110, this disclosurecontemplates any suitable arrangement of client system 130,social-networking system 160, third-party system 170, and network 110.As an example and not by way of limitation, two or more of client system130, social-networking system 160, and third-party system 170 may beconnected to each other directly, bypassing network 110. As anotherexample, two or more of client system 130, social-networking system 160,and third-party system 170 may be physically or logically co-locatedwith each other in whole or in part. Moreover, although FIG. 1illustrates a particular number of client systems 130, social-networkingsystems 160, third-party systems 170, and networks 110, this disclosurecontemplates any suitable number of client systems 130,social-networking systems 160, third-party systems 170, and networks110. As an example and not by way of limitation, network environment 100may include multiple client system 130, social-networking systems 160,third-party systems 170, and networks 110.

This disclosure contemplates any suitable network 110. As an example andnot by way of limitation, one or more portions of network 110 mayinclude an ad hoc network, an intranet, an extranet, a virtual privatenetwork (VPN), a local area network (LAN), a wireless LAN (WLAN), a widearea network (WAN), a wireless WAN (WWAN), a metropolitan area network(MAN), a portion of the Internet, a portion of the Public SwitchedTelephone Network (PSTN), a cellular telephone network, or a combinationof two or more of these. Network 110 may include one or more networks110.

Links 150 may connect client system 130, social-networking system 160,and third-party system 170 to communication network 110 or to eachother. This disclosure contemplates any suitable links 150. Inparticular embodiments, one or more links 150 include one or morewireline (such as for example Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) or Data OverCable Service Interface Specification (DOCSIS)), wireless (such as forexample Wi-Fi or Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access(WiMAX)), or optical (such as for example Synchronous Optical Network(SONET) or Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH)) links. In particularembodiments, one or more links 150 each include an ad hoc network, anintranet, an extranet, a VPN, a LAN, a WLAN, a WAN, a WWAN, a MAN, aportion of the Internet, a portion of the PSTN, a cellulartechnology-based network, a satellite communications technology-basednetwork, another link 150, or a combination of two or more such links150. Links 150 need not necessarily be the same throughout networkenvironment 100. One or more first links 150 may differ in one or morerespects from one or more second links 150.

In particular embodiments, client system 130 may be an electronic deviceincluding hardware, software, or embedded logic components or acombination of two or more such components and capable of carrying outthe appropriate functionalities implemented or supported by clientsystem 130. As an example and not by way of limitation, a client system130 may include a computer system such as a desktop computer, notebookor laptop computer, netbook, a tablet computer, e-book reader, GPSdevice, camera, personal digital assistant (PDA), handheld electronicdevice, cellular telephone, smartphone, other suitable electronicdevice, or any suitable combination thereof. This disclosurecontemplates any suitable client systems 130. A client system 130 mayenable a network user at client system 130 to access network 110. Aclient system 130 may enable its user to communicate with other users atother client systems 130.

In particular embodiments, client system 130 may include a web browser132, such as MICROSOFT INTERNET EXPLORER, GOOGLE CHROME or MOZILLAFIREFOX, and may have one or more add-ons, plug-ins, or otherextensions, such as TOOLBAR or YAHOO TOOLBAR. A user at client system130 may enter a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) or other addressdirecting the web browser 132 to a particular server (such as server162, or a server associated with a third-party system 170), and the webbrowser 132 may generate a Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP) requestand communicate the HTTP request to server. The server may accept theHTTP request and communicate to client system 130 one or more Hyper TextMarkup Language (HTML) files responsive to the HTTP request. Clientsystem 130 may render a webpage based on the HTML files from the serverfor presentation to the user. This disclosure contemplates any suitablepage files, including webpages or pages presented as a user interface ofa native application. As an example and not by way of limitation,webpages may render from HTML files, Extensible Hyper Text MarkupLanguage (XHTML) files, or Extensible Markup Language (XML) files,according to particular needs. Such pages may also execute scripts suchas, for example and without limitation, those written in JAVASCRIPT,JAVA, MICROSOFT SILVERLIGHT, combinations of markup language and scriptssuch as AJAX (Asynchronous JAVASCRIPT and XML), and the like. Herein,reference to a webpage encompasses one or more corresponding webpagefiles (which a browser may use to render the webpage) and vice versa,where appropriate.

In particular embodiments, social-networking system 160 may be anetwork-addressable computing system that can host an online socialnetwork. Social-networking system 160 may generate, store, receive, andsend social-networking data, such as, for example, user-profile data,concept-profile data, social-graph information, or other suitable datarelated to the online social network. Social-networking system 160 maybe accessed by the other components of network environment 100 eitherdirectly or via network 110. In particular embodiments,social-networking system 160 may include one or more servers 162. Eachserver 162 may be a unitary server or a distributed server spanningmultiple computers or multiple datacenters. Servers 162 may be ofvarious types, such as, for example and without limitation, web server,news server, mail server, message server, advertising server, fileserver, application server, exchange server, database server, proxyserver, another server suitable for performing functions or processesdescribed herein, or any combination thereof. In particular embodiments,each server 162 may include hardware, software, or embedded logiccomponents or a combination of two or more such components for carryingout the appropriate functionalities implemented or supported by server162. In particular embodiments, social-networking system 164 may includeone or more data stores 164. Data stores 164 may be used to storevarious types of information. In particular embodiments, the informationstored in data stores 164 may be organized according to specific datastructures. In particular embodiments, each data store 164 may be arelational database. Particular embodiments may provide interfaces thatenable a client system 130, a social-networking system 160, or athird-party system 170 to manage, retrieve, modify, add, or delete, theinformation stored in data store 164.

In particular embodiments, social-networking system 160 may store one ormore social graphs in one or more data stores 164. In particularembodiments, a social graph may include multiple nodes—which may includemultiple user nodes (each corresponding to a particular user) ormultiple concept nodes (each corresponding to a particular concept)—andmultiple edges connecting the nodes. Social-networking system 160 mayprovide users of the online social network the ability to communicateand interact with other users. In particular embodiments, users may jointhe online social network via social-networking system 160 and then addconnections (i.e., relationships) to a number of other users ofsocial-networking system 160 whom they want to be connected to. Herein,the term “friend” may refer to any other user of social-networkingsystem 160 with whom a user has formed a connection, association, orrelationship via social-networking system 160.

In particular embodiments, social-networking system 160 may provideusers with the ability to take actions on various types of items orobjects, supported by social-networking system 160. As an example andnot by way of limitation, the items and objects may include groups orsocial networks to which users of social-networking system 160 maybelong, events or calendar entries in which a user might be interested,computer-based applications that a user may use, transactions that allowusers to buy or sell items via the service, interactions withadvertisements that a user may perform, or other suitable items orobjects. A user may interact with anything that is capable of beingrepresented in social-networking system 160 or by an external system ofthird-party system 170, which is separate from social-networking system160 and coupled to social-networking system 160 via a network 110.

In particular embodiments, social-networking system 160 may be capableof linking a variety of entities. As an example and not by way oflimitation, social-networking system 160 may enable users to interactwith each other as well as receive content from third-party systems 170or other entities, or to allow users to interact with these entitiesthrough an application programming interfaces (API) or othercommunication channels.

In particular embodiments, a third-party system 170 may include one ormore types of servers, one or more data stores, one or more interfaces,including but not limited to APIs, one or more web services, one or morecontent sources, one or more networks, or any other suitable components,e.g., that servers may communicate with. A third-party system 170 may beoperated by a different entity from an entity operatingsocial-networking system 160. In particular embodiments, however,social-networking system 160 and third-party systems 170 may operate inconjunction with each other to provide social-networking services tousers of social-networking system 160 or third-party systems 170. Inthis sense, social-networking system 160 may provide a platform, orbackbone, which other systems, such as third-party systems 170, may useto provide social-networking services and functionality to users acrossthe Internet.

In particular embodiments, a third-party system 170 may include athird-party content object provider. A third-party content objectprovider may include one or more sources of content objects, which maybe communicated to a client system 130. As an example and not by way oflimitation, content objects may include information regarding things oractivities of interest to the user, such as, for example, movie showtimes, movie reviews, restaurant reviews, restaurant menus, productinformation and reviews, or other suitable information. As anotherexample and not by way of limitation, content objects may includeincentive content objects, such as coupons, discount tickets, giftcertificates, or other suitable incentive objects.

In particular embodiments, social-networking system 160 also includesuser-generated content objects, which may enhance a user's interactionswith social-networking system 160. User-generated content may includeanything a user can add, upload, send, or “post” to social-networkingsystem 160. As an example and not by way of limitation, a usercommunicates posts to social-networking system 160 from a client system130. Posts may include data such as status updates or other textualdata, location information, photos, videos, links, music or othersimilar data or media. Content may also be added to social-networkingsystem 160 by a third-party through a “communication channel,” such as anewsfeed or stream.

In particular embodiments, social-networking system 160 may include avariety of servers, sub-systems, programs, modules, logs, and datastores. In particular embodiments, social-networking system 160 mayinclude one or more of the following: a web server, action logger,API-request server, relevance-and-ranking engine, content-objectclassifier, notification controller, action log,third-party-content-object-exposure log, inference module,authorization/privacy server, search module, ad-targeting module,user-interface module, user-profile store, connection store, third-partycontent store, or location store. Social-networking system 160 may alsoinclude suitable components such as network interfaces, securitymechanisms, load balancers, failover servers,management-and-network-operations consoles, other suitable components,or any suitable combination thereof. In particular embodiments,social-networking system 160 may include one or more user-profile storesfor storing user profiles. A user profile may include, for example,biographic information, demographic information, behavioral information,social information, or other types of descriptive information, such aswork experience, educational history, hobbies or preferences, interests,affinities, or location. Interest information may include interestsrelated to one or more categories. Categories may be general orspecific. As an example and not by way of limitation, if a user “likes”an article about a brand of shoes the category may be the brand, or thegeneral category of “shoes” or “clothing.” A connection store may beused for storing connection information about users. The connectioninformation may indicate users who have similar or common workexperience, group memberships, hobbies, educational history, or are inany way related or share common attributes. The connection informationmay also include user-defined connections between different users andcontent (both internal and external). A web server may be used forlinking social-networking system 160 to one or more client systems 130or one or more third-party system 170 via network 110. The web servermay include a mail server or other messaging functionality for receivingand routing messages between social-networking system 160 and one ormore client systems 130. An API-request server may allow a third-partysystem 170 to access information from social-networking system 160 bycalling one or more APIs. An action logger may be used to receivecommunications from a web server about a user's actions on or offsocial-networking system 160. In conjunction with the action log, athird-party-content-object log may be maintained of user exposures tothird-party-content objects. A notification controller may provideinformation regarding content objects to a client system 130.Information may be pushed to a client system 130 as notifications, orinformation may be pulled from client system 130 responsive to a requestreceived from client system 130. Authorization servers may be used toenforce one or more privacy settings of the users of social-networkingsystem 160. A privacy setting of a user determines how particularinformation associated with a user can be shared. The authorizationserver may allow users to opt in or opt out of having their actionslogged by social-networking system 160 or shared with other systems(e.g., third-party system 170), such as, for example, by settingappropriate privacy settings. Third-party-content-object stores may beused to store content objects received from third parties, such as athird-party system 170. Location stores may be used for storing locationinformation received from client systems 130 associated with users.Ad-pricing modules may combine social information, the current time,location information, or other suitable information to provide relevantadvertisements, in the form of notifications, to a user.

Social Graphs

FIG. 2 illustrates example social graph 200. In particular embodiments,social-networking system 160 may store one or more social graphs 200 inone or more data stores. In particular embodiments, social graph 200 mayinclude multiple nodes—which may include multiple user nodes 202 ormultiple concept nodes 204—and multiple edges 206 connecting the nodes.Example social graph 200 illustrated in FIG. 2 is shown, for didacticpurposes, in a two-dimensional visual map representation. In particularembodiments, a social-networking system 160, client system 130, orthird-party system 170 may access social graph 200 and relatedsocial-graph information for suitable applications. The nodes and edgesof social graph 200 may be stored as data objects, for example, in adata store (such as a social-graph database). Such a data store mayinclude one or more searchable or queryable indexes of nodes or edges ofsocial graph 200.

In particular embodiments, a user node 202 may correspond to a user ofsocial-networking system 160. As an example and not by way oflimitation, a user may be an individual (human user), an entity (e.g.,an enterprise, business, or third-party application), or a group (e.g.,of individuals or entities) that interacts or communicates with or oversocial-networking system 160. In particular embodiments, when a userregisters for an account with social-networking system 160,social-networking system 160 may create a user node 202 corresponding tothe user, and store the user node 202 in one or more data stores. Usersand user nodes 202 described herein may, where appropriate, refer toregistered users and user nodes 202 associated with registered users. Inaddition or as an alternative, users and user nodes 202 described hereinmay, where appropriate, refer to users that have not registered withsocial-networking system 160. In particular embodiments, a user node 202may be associated with information provided by a user or informationgathered by various systems, including social-networking system 160. Asan example and not by way of limitation, a user may provide his or hername, profile picture, contact information, birth date, sex, maritalstatus, family status, employment, education background, preferences,interests, or other demographic information. In particular embodiments,a user node 202 may be associated with one or more data objectscorresponding to information associated with a user. In particularembodiments, a user node 202 may correspond to one or more pages.

In particular embodiments, a concept node 204 may correspond to aconcept. As an example and not by way of limitation, a concept maycorrespond to a place (such as, for example, a movie theater,restaurant, landmark, or city); a website (such as, for example, awebsite associated with social-networking system 160 or a third-partywebsite associated with a web-application server); an entity (such as,for example, a person, business, group, sports team, or celebrity); aresource (such as, for example, an audio file, video file, digitalphoto, text file, structured document, or application) which may belocated within social-networking system 160 or on an external server,such as a web-application server; real or intellectual property (suchas, for example, a sculpture, painting, movie, game, song, idea,photograph, or written work); a game; an activity; an idea or theory;another suitable concept; or two or more such concepts. A concept node204 may be associated with information of a concept provided by a useror information gathered by various systems, including social-networkingsystem 160. As an example and not by way of limitation, information of aconcept may include a name or a title; one or more images (e.g., animage of the cover page of a book); a location (e.g., an address or ageographical location); a website (which may be associated with a URL);contact information (e.g., a phone number or an email address); othersuitable concept information; or any suitable combination of suchinformation. In particular embodiments, a concept node 204 may beassociated with one or more data objects corresponding to informationassociated with concept node 204. In particular embodiments, a conceptnode 204 may correspond to one or more pages.

In particular embodiments, a node in social graph 200 may represent orbe represented by a page (which may be referred to as a “profile page”).Profile pages may be hosted by or accessible to social-networking system160. Profile pages may also be hosted on third-party websites associatedwith a third-party server 170. As an example and not by way oflimitation, a profile page corresponding to a particular externalwebpage may be the particular external webpage and the profile page maycorrespond to a particular concept node 204. Profile pages may beviewable by all or a selected subset of other users. As an example andnot by way of limitation, a user node 202 may have a correspondinguser-profile page in which the corresponding user may add content, makedeclarations, or otherwise express himself or herself. As anotherexample and not by way of limitation, a concept node 204 may have acorresponding concept-profile page in which one or more users may addcontent, make declarations, or express themselves, particularly inrelation to the concept corresponding to concept node 204.

In particular embodiments, a concept node 204 may represent athird-party webpage or resource hosted by a third-party system 170. Thethird-party webpage or resource may include, among other elements,content, a selectable or other icon, or other inter-actable object(which may be implemented, for example, in JavaScript, AJAX, or PHPcodes) representing an action or activity. As an example and not by wayof limitation, a third-party webpage may include a selectable icon suchas “like,” “check in,” “eat,” “recommend,” or another suitable action oractivity. A user viewing the third-party webpage may perform an actionby selecting one of the icons (e.g., “eat”), causing a client system 130to send to social-networking system 160 a message indicating the user'saction. In response to the message, social-networking system 160 maycreate an edge (e.g., an “eat” edge) between a user node 202corresponding to the user and a concept node 204 corresponding to thethird-party webpage or resource and store edge 206 in one or more datastores.

In particular embodiments, a pair of nodes in social graph 200 may beconnected to each other by one or more edges 206. An edge 206 connectinga pair of nodes may represent a relationship between the pair of nodes.In particular embodiments, an edge 206 may include or represent one ormore data objects or attributes corresponding to the relationshipbetween a pair of nodes. As an example and not by way of limitation, afirst user may indicate that a second user is a “friend” of the firstuser. In response to this indication, social-networking system 160 maysend a “friend request” to the second user. If the second user confirmsthe “friend request,” social-networking system 160 may create an edge206 connecting the first user's user node 202 to the second user's usernode 202 in social graph 200 and store edge 206 as social-graphinformation in one or more of data stores 24. In the example of FIG. 2,social graph 200 includes an edge 206 indicating a friend relationbetween user nodes 202 of user “A” and user “B” and an edge indicating afriend relation between user nodes 202 of user “C” and user “B.”Although this disclosure describes or illustrates particular edges 206with particular attributes connecting particular user nodes 202, thisdisclosure contemplates any suitable edges 206 with any suitableattributes connecting user nodes 202. As an example and not by way oflimitation, an edge 206 may represent a friendship, family relationship,business or employment relationship, fan relationship, followerrelationship, visitor relationship, subscriber relationship,superior/subordinate relationship, reciprocal relationship,non-reciprocal relationship, another suitable type of relationship, ortwo or more such relationships. Moreover, although this disclosuregenerally describes nodes as being connected, this disclosure alsodescribes users or concepts as being connected. Herein, references tousers or concepts being connected may, where appropriate, refer to thenodes corresponding to those users or concepts being connected in socialgraph 200 by one or more edges 206.

In particular embodiments, an edge 206 between a user node 202 and aconcept node 204 may represent a particular action or activity performedby a user associated with user node 202 toward a concept associated witha concept node 204. As an example and not by way of limitation, asillustrated in FIG. 2, a user may “like,” “attended,” “played,”“listened,” “cooked,” “worked at,” or “watched” a concept, each of whichmay correspond to a edge type or subtype. A concept-profile pagecorresponding to a concept node 204 may include, for example, aselectable “check in” icon (such as, for example, a clickable “check in”icon) or a selectable “add to favorites” icon. Similarly, after a userclicks these icons, social-networking system 160 may create a “favorite”edge or a “check in” edge in response to a user's action correspondingto a respective action. As another example and not by way of limitation,a user (user “C”) may listen to a particular song (“Imagine”) using aparticular application (SPOTIFY, which is an online music application).In this case, social-networking system 160 may create a “listened” edge206 and a “used” edge (as illustrated in FIG. 2) between user nodes 202corresponding to the user and concept nodes 204 corresponding to thesong and application to indicate that the user listened to the song andused the application. Moreover, social-networking system 160 may createa “played” edge 206 (as illustrated in FIG. 2) between concept nodes 204corresponding to the song and the application to indicate that theparticular song was played by the particular application. In this case,“played” edge 206 corresponds to an action performed by an externalapplication (SPOTIFY) on an external audio file (the song “Imagine”).Although this disclosure describes particular edges 206 with particularattributes connecting user nodes 202 and concept nodes 204, thisdisclosure contemplates any suitable edges 206 with any suitableattributes connecting user nodes 202 and concept nodes 204. Moreover,although this disclosure describes edges between a user node 202 and aconcept node 204 representing a single relationship, this disclosurecontemplates edges between a user node 202 and a concept node 204representing one or more relationships. As an example and not by way oflimitation, an edge 206 may represent both that a user likes and hasused at a particular concept. Alternatively, another edge 206 mayrepresent each type of relationship (or multiples of a singlerelationship) between a user node 202 and a concept node 204 (asillustrated in FIG. 2 between user node 202 for user “E” and conceptnode 204 for “SPOTIFY”).

In particular embodiments, social-networking system 160 may create anedge 206 between a user node 202 and a concept node 204 in social graph200. As an example and not by way of limitation, a user viewing aconcept-profile page (such as, for example, by using a web browser or aspecial-purpose application hosted by the user's client system 130) mayindicate that he or she likes the concept represented by the conceptnode 204 by clicking or selecting a “Like” icon, which may cause theuser's client system 130 to send to social-networking system 160 amessage indicating the user's liking of the concept associated with theconcept-profile page. In response to the message, social-networkingsystem 160 may create an edge 206 between user node 202 associated withthe user and concept node 204, as illustrated by “like” edge 206 betweenthe user and concept node 204. In particular embodiments,social-networking system 160 may store an edge 206 in one or more datastores. In particular embodiments, an edge 206 may be automaticallyformed by social-networking system 160 in response to a particular useraction. As an example and not by way of limitation, if a first useruploads a picture, watches a movie, or listens to a song, an edge 206may be formed between user node 202 corresponding to the first user andconcept nodes 204 corresponding to those concepts. Although thisdisclosure describes forming particular edges 206 in particular manners,this disclosure contemplates forming any suitable edges 206 in anysuitable manner.

Typeahead Processes

In particular embodiments, one or more client-side and/or backend(server-side) processes may implement and utilize a “typeahead” featurethat may automatically attempt to match social-graph elements (e.g.,user nodes 202, concept nodes 204, or edges 206) to informationcurrently being entered by a user in an input form rendered inconjunction with a requested page (such as, for example, a user-profilepage, a concept-profile page, a search-results page, a user interface ofa native application associated with the online social network, oranother suitable page of the online social network), which may be hostedby or accessible in the social-networking system 160. In particularembodiments, as a user is entering text to make a declaration, thetypeahead feature may attempt to match the string of textual charactersbeing entered in the declaration to strings of characters (e.g., names,descriptions) corresponding to user, concepts, or edges and theircorresponding elements in the social graph 200. In particularembodiments, when a match is found, the typeahead feature mayautomatically populate the form with a reference to the social-graphelement (such as, for example, the node name/type, node ID, edgename/type, edge ID, or another suitable reference or identifier) of theexisting social-graph element.

In particular embodiments, as a user types or otherwise enters text intoa form used to add content or make declarations in various sections ofthe user's profile page, home page, or other page, the typeahead processmay work in conjunction with one or more frontend (client-side) and/orbackend (server-side) typeahead processes (hereinafter referred tosimply as “typeahead process”) executing at (or within) thesocial-networking system 160 (e.g., within servers 162), tointeractively and virtually instantaneously (as appearing to the user)attempt to auto-populate the form with a term or terms corresponding tonames of existing social-graph elements, or terms associated withexisting social-graph elements, determined to be the most relevant orbest match to the characters of text entered by the user as the userenters the characters of text. Utilizing the social-graph information ina social-graph database or information extracted and indexed from thesocial-graph database, including information associated with nodes andedges, the typeahead processes, in conjunction with the information fromthe social-graph database, as well as potentially in conjunction withvarious others processes, applications, or databases located within orexecuting within social-networking system 160, may be able to predict auser's intended declaration with a high degree of precision. However,the social-networking system 160 can also provides user's with thefreedom to enter essentially any declaration they wish, enabling usersto express themselves freely.

In particular embodiments, as a user enters text characters into a formbox or other field, the typeahead processes may attempt to identifyexisting social-graph elements (e.g., user nodes 202, concept nodes 204,or edges 206) that match the string of characters entered in the user'sdeclaration as the user is entering the characters. In particularembodiments, as the user enters characters into a form box, thetypeahead process may read the string of entered textual characters. Aseach keystroke is made, the frontend-typeahead process may send theentered character string as a request (or call) to the backend-typeaheadprocess executing within social-networking system 160. In particularembodiments, the typeahead processes may communicate via AJAX(Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) or other suitable techniques, andparticularly, asynchronous techniques. In particular embodiments, therequest may be, or comprise, an XMLHTTPRequest (XHR) enabling quick anddynamic sending and fetching of results. In particular embodiments, thetypeahead process may also send before, after, or with the request asection identifier (section ID) that identifies the particular sectionof the particular page in which the user is making the declaration. Inparticular embodiments, a user ID parameter may also be sent, but thismay be unnecessary in some embodiments, as the user may already be“known” based on the user having logged into (or otherwise beenauthenticated by) the social-networking system 160.

In particular embodiments, the typeahead process may use one or morematching algorithms to attempt to identify matching social-graphelements. In particular embodiments, when a match or matches are found,the typeahead process may send a response (which may utilize AJAX orother suitable techniques) to the user's client system 130 that mayinclude, for example, the names (name strings) or descriptions of thematching social-graph elements as well as, potentially, other metadataassociated with the matching social-graph elements. As an example andnot by way of limitation, if a user entering the characters “pok” into aquery field, the typeahead process may display a drop-down menu thatdisplays names of matching existing profile pages and respective usernodes 202 or concept nodes 204, such as a profile page named or devotedto “poker” or “pokemon”, which the user can then click on or otherwiseselect thereby confirming the desire to declare the matched user orconcept name corresponding to the selected node. As another example andnot by way of limitation, upon clicking “poker,” the typeahead processmay auto-populate, or causes the web browser 132 to auto-populate, thequery field with the declaration “poker”. In particular embodiments, thetypeahead process may simply auto-populate the field with the name orother identifier of the top-ranked match rather than display a drop-downmenu. The user may then confirm the auto-populated declaration simply bykeying “enter” on his or her keyboard or by clicking on theauto-populated declaration.

More information on typeahead processes may be found in U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 12/763,162, filed 19 Apr. 2010, and U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 13/556,072, filed 23 Jul. 2012, which areincorporated by reference.

Structured Search Queries

FIG. 3 illustrates an example page of an online social network. Inparticular embodiments, a user may submit a query to thesocial-networking system 160 by inputting text into query field 350. Auser of an online social network may search for information relating toa specific subject matter (e.g., users, concepts, external content orresource) by providing a short phrase describing the subject matter,often referred to as a “search query,” to a search engine. The query maybe an unstructured text query and may comprise one or more text strings(which may include one or more n-grams). In general, a user may inputany character string into query field 350 to search for content on thesocial-networking system 160 that matches the text query. Thesocial-networking system 160 may then search a data store 164 (or, inparticular, a social-graph database) to identify content matching thequery. The search engine may conduct a search based on the query phraseusing various search algorithms and generate search results thatidentify resources or content (e.g., user-profile pages, content-profilepages, or external resources) that are most likely to be related to thesearch query. To conduct a search, a user may input or send a searchquery to the search engine. In response, the search engine may identifyone or more resources that are likely to be related to the search query,each of which may individually be referred to as a “search result,” orcollectively be referred to as the “search results” corresponding to thesearch query. The identified content may include, for example,social-graph elements (i.e., user nodes 202, concept nodes 204, edges206), profile pages, external webpages, or any combination thereof. Thesocial-networking system 160 may then generate a search-results pagewith search results corresponding to the identified content and send thesearch-results page to the user. The search results may be presented tothe user, often in the form of a list of links on the search-resultspage, each link being associated with a different page that containssome of the identified resources or content. In particular embodiments,each link in the search results may be in the form of a Uniform ResourceLocator (URL) that specifies where the corresponding page is located andthe mechanism for retrieving it. The social-networking system 160 maythen send the search-results page to the web browser 132 on the user'sclient system 130. The user may then click on the URL links or otherwiseselect the content from the search-results page to access the contentfrom the social-networking system 160 or from an external system (suchas, for example, a third-party system 170), as appropriate. Theresources may be ranked and presented to the user according to theirrelative degrees of relevance to the search query. The search resultsmay also be ranked and presented to the user according to their relativedegree of relevance to the user. In other words, the search results maybe personalized for the querying user based on, for example,social-graph information, user information, search or browsing historyof the user, or other suitable information related to the user. Inparticular embodiments, ranking of the resources may be determined by aranking algorithm implemented by the search engine. As an example andnot by way of limitation, resources that are more relevant to the searchquery or to the user may be ranked higher than the resources that areless relevant to the search query or the user. In particularembodiments, the search engine may limit its search to resources andcontent on the online social network. However, in particularembodiments, the search engine may also search for resources or contentson other sources, such as a third-party system 170, the internet orWorld Wide Web, or other suitable sources. Although this disclosuredescribes querying the social-networking system 160 in a particularmanner, this disclosure contemplates querying the social-networkingsystem 160 in any suitable manner.

In particular embodiments, the typeahead processes described herein maybe applied to search queries entered by a user. As an example and not byway of limitation, as a user enters text characters into a query field350, a typeahead process may attempt to identify one or more user nodes202, concept nodes 204, or edges 206 that match the string of charactersentered into query field 350 as the user is entering the characters. Asthe typeahead process receives requests or calls including a string orn-gram from the text query, the typeahead process may perform or causesto be performed a search to identify existing social-graph elements(i.e., user nodes 202, concept nodes 204, edges 206) having respectivenames, types, categories, or other identifiers matching the enteredtext. The typeahead process may use one or more matching algorithms toattempt to identify matching nodes or edges. When a match or matches arefound, the typeahead process may send a response to the user's clientsystem 130 that may include, for example, the names (name strings) ofthe matching nodes as well as, potentially, other metadata associatedwith the matching nodes. The typeahead process may then display adrop-down menu 300 that displays names of matching existing profilepages and respective user nodes 202 or concept nodes 204, and displaysnames of matching edges 206 that may connect to the matching user nodes202 or concept nodes 204, which the user can then click on or otherwiseselect thereby confirming the desire to search for the matched user orconcept name corresponding to the selected node, or to search for usersor concepts connected to the matched users or concepts by the matchingedges. Alternatively, the typeahead process may simply auto-populate theform with the name or other identifier of the top-ranked match ratherthan display a drop-down menu 300. The user may then confirm theauto-populated declaration simply by keying “enter” on a keyboard or byclicking on the auto-populated declaration. Upon user confirmation ofthe matching nodes and edges, the typeahead process may send a requestthat informs the social-networking system 160 of the user's confirmationof a query containing the matching social-graph elements. In response tothe request sent, the social-networking system 160 may automatically (oralternately based on an instruction in the request) call or otherwisesearch a social-graph database for the matching social-graph elements,or for social-graph elements connected to the matching social-graphelements as appropriate. Although this disclosure describes applying thetypeahead processes to search queries in a particular manner, thisdisclosure contemplates applying the typeahead processes to searchqueries in any suitable manner.

In connection with search queries and search results, particularembodiments may utilize one or more systems, components, elements,functions, methods, operations, or steps disclosed in U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 11/503,093, filed 11 Aug. 2006, U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 12/977,027, filed 22 Dec. 2010, and U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 12/978,265, filed 23 Dec. 2010, which areincorporated by reference.

Element Detection and Parsing Ambiguous Terms

FIGS. 4A-4B illustrate example queries of the social network. Inparticular embodiments, in response to a text query received from afirst user (i.e., the querying user), the social-networking system 160may parse the text query and identify portions of the text query thatcorrespond to particular social-graph elements. However, in some cases aquery may include one or more terms that are ambiguous, where anambiguous term is a term that may possibly correspond to multiplesocial-graph elements. To parse the ambiguous term, thesocial-networking system 160 may access a social graph 200 and thenparse the text query to identify the social-graph elements thatcorresponded to ambiguous n-grams from the text query. Thesocial-networking system 160 may then generate a set of structuredqueries, where each structured query corresponds to one of the possiblematching social-graph elements. These structured queries may be based onstrings generated by a grammar model, such that they are rendered in anatural-language syntax with references to the relevant social-graphelements. These structured queries may be presented to the queryinguser, who can then select among the structured queries to indicate whichsocial-graph element the querying user intended to reference with theambiguous term. In response to the querying user's selection, thesocial-networking system 160 may then lock the ambiguous term in thequery to the social-graph element selected by the querying user, andthen generate a new set of structured queries based on the selectedsocial-graph element. FIGS. 4A-4B illustrate various example textqueries in query field 350 and various structured queries generated inresponse in drop-down menus 300 (although other suitable graphical userinterfaces are possible). By providing suggested structured queries inresponse to a user's text query, the social-networking system 160 mayprovide a powerful way for users of the online social network to searchfor elements represented in the social graph 200 based on theirsocial-graph attributes and their relation to various social-graphelements. Structured queries may allow a querying user to search forcontent that is connected to particular users or concepts in the socialgraph 200 by particular edge-types. The structured queries may be sentto the first user and displayed in a drop-down menu 300 (via, forexample, a client-side typeahead process), where the first user can thenselect an appropriate query to search for the desired content. Some ofthe advantages of using the structured queries described herein includefinding users of the online social network based upon limitedinformation, bringing together virtual indexes of content from theonline social network based on the relation of that content to varioussocial-graph elements, or finding content related to you and/or yourfriends. Although this disclosure describes and FIGS. 4A-4B illustrategenerating particular structured queries in a particular manner, thisdisclosure contemplates generating any suitable structured queries inany suitable manner.

In particular embodiments, the social-networking system 160 may receivefrom a querying/first user (corresponding to a first user node 202) anunstructured text query. As an example and not by way of limitation, afirst user may want to search for other users who: (1) are first-degreefriends of the first user; and (2) are associated with StanfordUniversity (i.e., the user nodes 202 are connected by an edge 206 to theconcept node 204 corresponding to the school “Stanford”). The first usermay then enter a text query “friends stanford” into query field 350, asillustrated in FIGS. 4A-4B. As the querying user enters this text queryinto query field 350, the social-networking system 160 may providevarious suggested structured queries, as illustrated in drop-down menus300. As used herein, an unstructured text query refers to a simple textstring inputted by a user. The text query may, of course, be structuredwith respect to standard language/grammar rules (e.g. English languagegrammar). However, the text query will ordinarily be unstructured withrespect to social-graph elements. In other words, a simple text querywill not ordinarily include embedded references to particularsocial-graph elements. Thus, as used herein, a structured query refersto a query that contains references to particular social-graph elements,allowing the search engine to search based on the identified elements.Furthermore, the text query may be unstructured with respect to formalquery syntax. In other words, a simple text query will not necessarilybe in the format of a query command that is directly executable by asearch engine (e.g., the text query “friends stanford” could be parsedto form the query command “intersect(school(Stanford University),friends(me)”, or “/search/me/friends/[node ID for StanfordUniversity]/students/ever-past/intersect”, which could be executed as aquery in a social-graph database). Although this disclosure describesreceiving particular queries in a particular manner, this disclosurecontemplates receiving any suitable queries in any suitable manner.

In particular embodiments, social-networking system 160 may parse theunstructured text query (also simply referred to as a search query)received from the first user (i.e., the querying user) to identify oneor more n-grams. In general, an n-gram is a contiguous sequence of nitems from a given sequence of text or speech. The items may becharacters, phonemes, syllables, letters, words, base pairs, prefixes,or other identifiable items from the sequence of text or speech. Then-gram may comprise one or more characters of text (letters, numbers,punctuation, etc.) entered by the querying user. An n-gram of size onecan be referred to as a “unigram,” of size two can be referred to as a“bigram” or “digram,” of size three can be referred to as a “trigram,”and so on. Each n-gram may include one or more parts from the text queryreceived from the querying user. In particular embodiments, each n-grammay comprise a character string (e.g., one or more characters of text)entered by the first user. As an example and not by way of limitation,the social-networking system 160 may parse the text query “friendsstanford” to identify the following n-grams: friends; stanford; friendsstanford. As another example and not by way of limitation, thesocial-networking system 160 may parse the text query “friends in paloalto” to identify the following n-grams: friends; in; palo; alto;friends in; in palo; palo alto; friend in palo; in palo also; friends inpalo alto. In particular embodiments, each n-gram may comprise acontiguous sequence of n items from the text query. Although thisdisclosure describes parsing particular queries in a particular manner,this disclosure contemplates parsing any suitable queries in anysuitable manner.

In particular embodiments, social-networking system 160 may identify aplurality of nodes or a plurality of edges corresponding to one or moreof the n-grams of a text query. Identifying social-graph elements thatcorrespond to an n-gram may be done in a variety of manners, such as,for example, by determining or calculating, for each n-gram identifiedin the text query, a score that the n-gram corresponds to a social-graphelement. The score may be, for example, a confidence score, aprobability, a quality, a ranking, another suitable type of score, orany combination thereof. As an example and not by way of limitation, thesocial-networking system 160 may determine a probability score (alsoreferred to simply as a “probability”) that the n-gram corresponds to asocial-graph element, such as a user node 202, a concept node 204, or anedge 206 of social graph 200. The probability score may indicate thelevel of similarity or relevance between the n-gram and a particularsocial-graph element. There may be many different ways to calculate theprobability. The present disclosure contemplates any suitable method tocalculate a probability score for an n-gram identified in a searchquery. In particular embodiments, the social-networking system 160 maydetermine a probability, p, that an n-gram corresponds to a particularsocial-graph element. The probability, p, may be calculated as theprobability of corresponding to a particular social-graph element, k,given a particular search query, X. In other words, the probability maybe calculated as p=(k|X) As an example and not by way of limitation, aprobability that an n-gram corresponds to a social-graph element maycalculated as an probability score denoted as p_(i,j,k). The input maybe a text query X=(x₁, x₂, . . . , x_(N)), and a set of classes. Foreach (i:j) and a class k, the social-networking system 160 may computep_(i,j,k)=p(class(x_(i:j))=k|X). As an example and not by way oflimitation, the n-gram “stanford” could be scored with respect to thefollowing social-graph elements as follows: school “StanfordUniversity”=0.7; location “Stanford, Calif.”=0.2; user “AllenStanford”=0.1. In this example, because the n-gram “stanford”corresponds to multiple social-graph elements, it may be considered anambiguous n-gram by the social-networking system 160. In other words,the n-gram is not immediately resolvable to a single social-graphelement based on the parsing algorithm used by the social-networkingsystem 160. In particular embodiments, after identifying an ambiguousn-gram, the social-networking system 160 may highlight that n-gram inthe text query to indicate that it may correspond to multiplesocial-graph elements. As an example and not by way of limitation, asillustrated in FIG. 4B the term “Stanford” in query field 350 has beenhighlighted with a dashed-underline to indicate that it may correspondto multiple social-graph elements, as discussed previously. Althoughthis disclosure describes determining whether n-grams correspond tosocial-graph elements in a particular manner, this disclosurecontemplates determining whether n-grams correspond to social-graphelements in any suitable manner. Moreover, although this disclosuredescribes determining whether an n-gram corresponds to a social-graphelement using a particular type of score, this disclosure contemplatesdetermining whether an n-gram corresponds to a social-graph elementusing any suitable type of score.

More information on element detection and parsing queries may be foundin U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/556,072, filed 23 Jul. 2012, U.S.patent application Ser. No. 13/731,866, filed 31 Dec. 2012, and U.S.patent application Ser. No. 13/732,101, filed 31 Dec. 2012, each ofwhich is incorporated by reference.

Generating Structured Search Queries

In particular embodiments, the social-networking system 160 may access acontext-free grammar model comprising a plurality of grammars. Eachgrammar of the grammar model may comprise one or more non-terminaltokens (or “non-terminal symbols”) and one or more terminal tokens (or“terminal symbols”/“query tokens”), where particular non-terminal tokensmay be replaced by terminal tokens. A grammar model is a set offormation rules for strings in a formal language. Although thisdisclosure describes accessing particular grammars, this disclosurecontemplates any suitable grammars.

In particular embodiments, the social-networking system 160 may generateone or more strings using one or more grammars. To generate a string inthe language, one begins with a string consisting of only a single startsymbol. The production rules are then applied in any order, until astring that contains neither the start symbol nor designatednon-terminal symbols is produced. In a context-free grammar, theproduction of each non-terminal symbol of the grammar is independent ofwhat is produced by other non-terminal symbols of the grammar. Thenon-terminal symbols may be replaced with terminal symbols (i.e.,terminal tokens or query tokens). Some of the query tokens maycorrespond to identified nodes or identified edges, as describedpreviously. A string generated by the grammar may then be used as thebasis for a structured query containing references to the identifiednodes or identified edges. The string generated by the grammar may berendered in a natural-language syntax, such that a structured querybased on the string is also rendered in natural language. A context-freegrammar is a grammar in which the left-hand side of each production ruleconsists of only a single non-terminal symbol. A probabilisticcontext-free grammar is a tuple (Σ,N,S,P), where the disjoint sets Σ andN specify the terminal and non-terminal symbols, respectively, with SεNbeing the start symbol. P is the set of productions, which take the formE→ξ(p), with EεN, ξε(Σ∪N)⁺, and p=Pr(E→ξ), the probability that E willbe expanded into the string ξ. The sum of probabilities p over allexpansions of a given non-terminal E must be one. Although thisdisclosure describes generating strings in a particular manner, thisdisclosure contemplates generating strings in any suitable manner.

In particular embodiments, the social-networking system 160 may generateone or more structured queries. The structured queries may be based onthe natural-language strings generated by one or more grammars, asdescribed previously. Each structured query may include references toone or more of the identified nodes or one or more of the identifiededges 206. This type of structured query may allow the social-networkingsystem 160 to more efficiently search for resources and content relatedto the online social network (such as, for example, profile pages) bysearching for content connected to or otherwise related to theidentified user nodes 202 and the identified edges 206. As an exampleand not by way of limitation, in response to the text query, “show mefriends of my girlfriend,” the social-networking system 160 may generatea structured query “Friends of Stephanie,” where “Friends” and“Stephanie” in the structured query are references corresponding toparticular social-graph elements. The reference to “Stephanie” wouldcorrespond to a particular user node 202 (where the social-networkingsystem 160 has parsed the n-gram “my girlfriend” to correspond with auser node 202 for the user “Stephanie”), while the reference to“Friends” would correspond to friend-type edges 206 connecting that usernode 202 to other user nodes 202 (i.e., edges 206 connecting to“Stephanie's” first-degree friends). When executing this structuredquery, the social-networking system 160 may identify one or more usernodes 202 connected by friend-type edges 206 to the user node 202corresponding to “Stephanie”. As another example and not by way oflimitation, as illustrated in FIG. 12A, in response to the text query,“friends who work at facebook,” the social-networking system 160 maygenerate a structured query “My friends who work at Facebook,” where “myfriends,” “work at,” and “Facebook” in the structured query arereferences corresponding to particular social-graph elements asdescribed previously (i.e., a friend-type edge 206, a work-at-type edge206, and concept node 204 corresponding to the company “Facebook”).These structured queries may be pre-generated and accessed from a cacheor generated dynamically in response to input from the user. Althoughthis disclosure describes generating particular structured queries in aparticular manner, this disclosure contemplates generating any suitablestructured queries in any suitable manner.

In particular embodiments, social-networking system 160 may score thegenerated structured queries. The score may be, for example, aconfidence score, a probability, a quality, a ranking, another suitabletype of score, or any combination thereof. The structured queries may bescored based on a variety of factors, such as, for example, the page ortype of page the user is accessing, user-engagement factors,business-intelligence data, the click-thru rate of particular queries,the conversion-rate of particular queries, user-preferences of thequerying user, the search history of the user, advertising sponsorshipof particular queries, the querying user's social-graph affinity forsocial-graph elements referenced in particular queries, the intent ofthe user, the general or current popularity of particular queries, theusefulness of particular queries, the geographic location of the user,other suitable factors, or any combination thereof. Although thisdisclosure describes ranking structured queries in a particular manner,this disclosure contemplates ranking structured queries in any suitablemanner.

In particular embodiments, social-networking system 160 may send one ormore of the structured queries to the querying user. As an example andnot by way of limitation, after the structured queries are generated,the social-networking system 160 may send one or more of the structuredqueries as a response (which may utilize AJAX or other suitabletechniques) to the user's client system 130 that may include, forexample, the names (name strings) of the referenced social-graphelements, other query limitations (e.g., Boolean operators, etc.), aswell as, potentially, other metadata associated with the referencedsocial-graph elements. The web browser 132 on the querying user's clientsystem 130 may display the sent structured queries in a drop-down menu300, as illustrated in FIGS. 4A-4B. In particular embodiments, the sentqueries may be presented to the querying user in a ranked order, suchas, for example, based on a rank previously determined as describedabove. Structured queries with better rankings may be presented in amore prominent position. Furthermore, in particular embodiments, onlystructured queries above a threshold rank may be sent or displayed tothe querying user. As an example and not by way of limitation, asillustrated in FIGS. 4A-4B, the structured queries may be presented tothe querying user in a drop-down menu 300 where higher ranked structuredqueries may be presented at the top of the menu, with lower rankedstructured queries presented in descending order down the menu. In theexamples illustrated in FIGS. 4A-4B, only the seven highest rankedqueries are sent and displayed to the user. In particular embodiments,one or more references in a structured query may be highlighted (e.g.,outlined, underlined, circled, bolded, italicized, colored, lighted,offset, in caps) in order to indicate its correspondence to a particularsocial-graph element. As an example and not by way of limitation, asillustrated in FIG. 4B, the references to “Stanford University” and“Stanford, Calif.” are highlighted (outlined) in the structured queriesto indicate that it corresponds to a particular concept node 204.Similarly, the references to “Friends”, “like”, “work at”, and “go to”in the structured queries presented in drop-down menu 300 could also behighlighted to indicate that they correspond to particular edges 206.Although this disclosure describes sending particular structured queriesin a particular manner, this disclosure contemplates sending anysuitable structured queries in any suitable manner.

In particular embodiments, social-networking system 160 may receive fromthe querying user a selection of one of the structured queries. Thenodes and edges referenced in the received structured query may bereferred to as the selected nodes and selected edges, respectively. Asan example and not by way of limitation, the web browser 132 on thequerying user's client system 130 may display the sent structuredqueries in a drop-down menu 300, as illustrated in FIGS. 4A-4B, whichthe user may then click on or otherwise select (e.g., by touching thequery on a touchscreen or keying “enter” on his keyboard) to indicatethe particular structured query the user wants the social-networkingsystem 160 to execute. Although this disclosure describes receivingselections of particular structured queries in a particular manner, thisdisclosure contemplates receiving selections of any suitable structuredqueries in any suitable manner.

More information on structured search queries and grammar models may befound in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/556,072, filed 23 Jul.2012, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/674,695, filed 12 Nov. 2012,and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/731,866, filed 31 Dec. 2012,each of which is incorporated by reference.

Generating Default Queries for a Page

FIGS. 5A-5D illustrate example pages of an online social network. Inparticular embodiments, the social-networking system 160 may generate aset of default structured queries for a page of the online socialnetwork. The social-networking system 160 may identify a page that auser is currently viewing or otherwise accessing and then identifyingany social-graph elements corresponding to that page. The social-graphelements corresponding to a page may be, for example, the nodecorresponding to a user- or concept-profile page, or the nodes/edgesreferenced in a structured query used to generate a particularsearch-results page. The social-networking system 160 may then generatea set of default structured queries for the page based on the identifiedsocial-graph elements for that page. As an example and not by way oflimitation, referencing FIG. 5B, when accessing a user-profile page forthe user “Mark”, which corresponds to the user node 202 for “Mark”, someof the default structured queries for that page may include “Friends ofMark” or “Photos of Mark”, as illustrated in drop-down menu 300, whereeach of these structured queries includes a reference to the user node202 of the user “Mark”. The generated default structured queries maythen be sent to the user and displayed, for example, in a drop-down menu300. In particular embodiments, the query field 350 may also serve asthe title bar for the page. In other words, the title bar and queryfield 350 may effectively be a unified field on a particular page. Thetitle bar for a page of the online social network may include areference to the social-graph elements that correspond to that page. Asan example and not by way of limitation, referencing is user-profilepages illustrated in FIGS. 5C-5D, the title bar across the top of thepage includes the name of the concept corresponding to that page,“Barack Obama”. This title bar may also server as a query field 350 forthe page. As such, a user accessing that page may then interact with thetitle of the page (e.g., by mousing over the title, clicking on it, orotherwise interacting with it), to input a query. In response to a userinteracting with the title/query field, the social-networking system 160may then generate a set of default structured queries for the page andautomatically send and display these queries in a drop-down menu 300 onthe page, as illustrated in FIG. 5B, where the drop-down menu 300 isdisplayed in association with the query field 350. Although thisdisclosure describes generating default queries for a page in aparticular manner, this disclosure contemplates generating defaultqueries for a page in any suitable manner.

In particular embodiments, the social-networking system 160 may identifya node of the social-graph 200 corresponding to a page currentlyaccessed by a user. A user may access any suitable page, such as, forexample, a user-profile page, a concept-profile page, a search-resultspage, a homepage, a newsfeed page, a notifications page, an email ormessages page, a user interface of a native application associated withthe online social network, or another suitable page of the online socialnetwork. Particular pages of the online social network may correspond toparticular social-graph elements. In particular embodiments, the usermay currently be accessing a profile page of the online social networkcorresponding to a particular user node 202 or concept node 204. Eachuser of the online social network may have a user-profile page thatcorresponds to a user node 202 of the user. As an example and not by wayof limitation, referencing FIGS. 5A-5B, which illustrate a user-profilepage for the user “Mark”, this page may correspond to a user node 202 ofthe user “Mark”. Similarly, each concept represented in the onlinesocial network may have a concept-profile page that corresponds to aconcept node 204 representing that concept. As an example and not by wayof limitation, referencing FIGS. 5C-5D, which illustrate aconcept-profile page for the politician “Barack Obama”, this page maycorrespond to a concept node 204 representing the politician “BarackObama” (note, of course, that Barack Obama may also have a personaluser-profile page). In particular embodiments, the user may currently beaccessing a search-results page corresponding to a structured query. Thestructured query may comprise references to one or more nodes and one ormore edges, and the search-results page may have been generated inresponse to this structured query. In this case, one or more of thenodes referenced in the structured query may be identified by thesocial-networking system 160 as being the nodes corresponding to thepage. Although this disclosure describes identifying particular nodescorresponding to particular pages in a particular manner, thisdisclosure contemplates identifying any suitable nodes corresponding toany suitable pages in any suitable manner.

In particular embodiments, the social-networking system 160 may generateone or more structured queries that each comprise a reference to theidentified node(s) of the page currently accessed by a user. Thesegenerated structured queries may be considered the default structuredqueries for the page. Each of these structured queries may also comprisereferences to one or more edges that are connected to the identifiednode. These default structured queries are effectively based on andreference the page currently being accessed by the user. Where the titlebar and the query field 350 field are unified fields, as describedpreviously, the social-networking system 160 may essentially use thetitle of the page (which itself may be considered a reference to one ormore social-graph elements) as a template query upon which querymodifications are added to generate the default structured queries. Asan example and not by way of limitation, referencing FIG. 5D, the titleof the page is “Barack Obama”, where this title is unified with thequery field 350, such that a user may interact with the title toimmediately bring up a drop-down menu 300 with a set of default queriesfor the page that reference the page the user is interacting with (i.e.,the suggested default queries contain references to the concept-node 204associated with the concept “Barack Obama”). In particular embodiments,if the user is accessing a search-results page, then the defaultstructured queries generated by the social-networking system 160 maycomprises references to the social-graph elements referenced in thestructured query used to generate that search-results page. In otherwords, if a structured query comprising references to one or more nodesand one or more edges is used to generate a particular search-resultspage, then the default structured queries generated for that page willalso include at least references to the one or more nodes and one ormore edges of the original structured query. Thus, the structured queryused to generate a particular search-results page may be used as thebase upon which expansions of that initial query may be suggested asdefault queries. Although this disclosure describes generatingparticular default structured queries in a particular manner, thisdisclosure contemplates any suitable default structured queries in anysuitable manner. Moreover, although this disclosure describes generatingdefault structured queries for particular types of pages, thisdisclosure contemplates generating default structured queries for anysuitable types of pages.

In particular embodiments, the social-networking system 160 may send oneor more of the default structured queries to the querying user fordisplay on the page currently accessed by the user. These structuredqueries may be sent and displayed as previously described. As an exampleand not by way of limitation, the web browser 132 on the querying user'sclient system 130 may display the sent structured queries in a drop-downmenu 300 in association with a query field 350 of a page, as illustratedin FIGS. 5B and 5D. The default structured queries generated for aparticular page may not be displayed until the user interacts with thequery field 350, such as, for example, by mousing over or clicking onthe query field 350, which may cause the structured queries to be sentand displayed in drop-down menu 300. The structured queries displayed indrop-down menu 300 may enable the user accessing the page to selectedone of the structured queries, indicating that the selected structuredquery should be executed by the social-networking system 160. Althoughthis disclosure describes sending particular default structured queriesin a particular manner, this disclosure contemplates sending anysuitable default structured queries in any suitable manner.

In particular embodiments, the social-networking system 160 may generateone or more default structured queries in response to a user accessing apage that does not correspond to a particular social-graph element. Auser may access a page of the online social network that does notnecessarily correspond to any particular social-graph element (such as,for example, a newsfeed page, which may not necessarily correspond toany particular nodes or edges of the social graph 200). In this case,the page may be considered to be in a “null state” with respect toidentifying social-graph elements that correspond to the page.Similarly, for a page that does correspond to one or more social-graphelements, the user accessing that page may place the query field 350 ofthe page into a null state by, for example, clearing or deleting anytitle or query that that had previously occupied the field. For anull-state page (or a query field 350 in a null state), thesocial-networking system 160 may generate a set of default structuredqueries for the page based on a variety of factors, such as, forexample, the page or type of page the user is accessing, user-engagementfactors, business-intelligence data, the click-thru rate of particularqueries, the conversion-rate of particular queries, user-preferences ofthe querying user, the search history of the user, advertisingsponsorship of particular queries, the querying user's social-graphaffinity for social-graph elements referenced in particular queries, theintent of the user, the general or current popularity of particularqueries, the usefulness of particular queries, the geographic locationof the querying user, other suitable factors, or any combinationthereof. In particular embodiments, when the user is accessing a pagethat does not correspond to a particular social-graph element, thesocial-networking system 160 may access a set of default structuredqueries corresponding to the page. Each of these default structuredqueries may comprise references to one or more edges 206 (or edge-types)or one or more nodes (or node-types). As an example and not by way oflimitation, FIG. 3 illustrates a newsfeed page being accessed by a userof the online social network. Some of the default structured queries forthis page may include “Friends of . . . ” or “People who like . . . ”,as illustrated in drop-down menu 300, where these structured queriesincluded references to friend-type edges 206 and like-type edges 206,respectively. In the example illustrated in FIG. 3, the defaultstructured queries contain ellipses to indicate that the user may inputtext into the query field 350 to complete the query. As another exampleand not by way of limitation, for the same newsfeed page illustrated inFIG. 3, the social-networking system 160 may generate default structuredqueries that include “My friends”, “Photos of my friends”, “Photos Ilike”, or “Apps my friends use”, where these structured queries includereference to both edges and nodes (e.g., for the structured query “Myfriends”, the term “My” is a reference to the user node 202 of thequerying user and the term “friends” is a reference to friend-type edges206 connected to that node). Although this disclosure describesgenerating default structured queries for a page that does notcorrespond to particular social-graph elements in a particular manner,this disclosure contemplates generating default structured queries for apage that does not correspond to particular social-graph elements in anysuitable manner.

FIG. 6 illustrates an example method 600 for generating defaultstructured search queries for a page. The method may begin at step 610,where the social-networking system 160 may access a social graph 200comprising a plurality of nodes and a plurality of edges 206 connectingthe nodes. The nodes may comprise a first user node 202 and a pluralityof second nodes (one or more user nodes 202, concepts nodes 204, or anycombination thereof). At step 620, the social-networking system 160 mayidentify a node of the plurality of nodes corresponding to a pagecurrently accessed by the first user. The page may be, for example, auser-profile page, a concept-profile page, a search-results page, oranother suitable page of the online social network. At step 630, thesocial-networking system 160 may generate one or more structuredqueries. Each of these structured queries may reference the identifiednode corresponding to the page currently accessed by the first user. Thestructured queries may also reference one or more edges of the pluralityof edges that are connected to the identified node. At step 640, thesocial-networking system 160 may send one or more of the structuredqueries to the first user for display on the page. These may beconsidered the default structured queries for the page, which have beendetermined based on the social-graph elements associated with the page.Particular embodiments may repeat one or more steps of the method ofFIG. 6, where appropriate. Although this disclosure describes andillustrates particular steps of the method of FIG. 6 as occurring in aparticular order, this disclosure contemplates any suitable steps of themethod of FIG. 6 occurring in any suitable order. Moreover, althoughthis disclosure describes and illustrates particular components,devices, or systems carrying out particular steps of the method of FIG.6, this disclosure contemplates any suitable combination of any suitablecomponents, devices, or systems carrying out any suitable steps of themethod of FIG. 6.

FIGS. 7A-7C illustrate example default queries of the online socialnetwork. In particular embodiments, social-networking system 160 maygenerate suggested structured queries for a user based on one or moreuser-engagement factors. It may be desirable for social-networkingsystem 160 to provide users with structured queries that are moreinteresting to the user and thus more likely to be engaged with (e.g.,selected or clicked-thru). A variety of factors may be used to increaseuser engagement, such as, for example, business-intelligence,user-preference/history, social-graph affinity, advertising sponsorship,or other suitable factors may be used to determine which suggestedqueries to serve to the user. Social-networking system 160 may calculatewhich structured queries are more likely to be engaged with by a user,and then send suggested queries to the user that the user is more likelyto engage with. As an example and not by way of limitation,social-networking system 160 may generate a set of possible suggestedqueries, and score sponsored queries more highly than other queries, andthese sponsored queries may then be sent to the querying user. Forexample, FIG. 7A illustrates a set of example default queries, where thesuggested queries “My friends who went to Shawshank Redemption” and “Myfriends who play Online Poker” are sponsored queries, and indicated assuch. The references to “Shawshank Redemption” and “Online Poker” arereferences to particular concept nodes 204 of social graph 200corresponding to the movie “Shawshank Redemption” and the game “OnlinePoker”, respectively. As another example and not by way of limitation,social-networking system 160 may generate suggested queries based on thegeneral or current popularity of particular queries, and score popularqueries more highly than less popular queries. For example, FIGS. 7B and7C illustrate what could be examples of queries users may be likely toengage with, “Ben Affleck's movies” or “Photos taken at The Old Pro”.The references to “Ben Affleck” and “The Old Pro” are references toparticular nodes of social graph 200 corresponding to the actor “BenAffleck” and the location “The Old Pro”, respectively. These queries maybe scored highly because, for example, they are popular among otherusers of the online social network, and based on their popularity theymay be generated and sent to the querying user. Although this disclosuredescribes generating structured queries for a user in a particularmanner, this disclosure contemplates generating structured queries for auser in any suitable manner.

In particular embodiments, the social-networking system 160 maycalculate a score for each structured query based on one or moreuser-engagement factors. A user-engagement factor provides a metric formeasuring the engagement of a user of the online social network, suchas, for example, by engaging with other users, concepts, content, etc.The score may be, for example, a confidence score, a probability, aquality, a ranking, another suitable type of score, or any combinationthereof. As an example and not by way of limitation, the score for eachstructured query may represent a probability that the first user willengage with the structured query. As another example and not by way oflimitation, the score may represent estimate of the degree and depth ofuser interaction with particular objects against a clearly defined setof goals. Scoring based on user-engagement factors may be based on avariety of factors, such as, for example, the page or type of page theuser is accessing, business-intelligence data, the click-thru rate ofparticular queries, the conversion-rate of particular queries,user-preferences of the querying user, the search history of the user,advertising sponsorship of particular queries, the querying user'ssocial-graph affinity for social-graph elements referenced in particularqueries, the intent of the user, the geographic location of the user,the general or current popularity of particular queries, the usefulnessof particular queries, other suitable factors, or any combinationthereof. Although this disclosure describes scoring particularstructured queries in a particular manner, this disclosure contemplatesscoring structured queries in any suitable manner.

In particular embodiments, social-networking system 160 may calculatethe score for a structured query based at least in part onbusiness-intelligence data. In this context, business-intelligence datarefers to data gathered by social-networking system 160 that helpspredict or identify queries that users are more likely to engage with,or queries that promote one or more business goals. Thebusiness-intelligence data may be data related particular to thequerying user, or related to other users of the online social network.As an example and not by way of limitation, social-networking system 160may use business-intelligence data relating to the querying user toidentify queries or query-types that the first user is more likely toengage with. As another example and not by way of limitation,social-networking system 160 may use business-intelligence data relatingto one or more other users of the online social network (e.g., userswithin a threshold-degree of separation, users within particular groupsor networks, or all users of the online social network) to identifyqueries or query-types that those users have or are likely to engagewith, and infer the likelihood of the querying user to engage with suchqueries.

In particular embodiments, social-networking system 160 may calculatethe score for a structured query based at least in part on a click-thrurate for the structured query. Queries or query-types with higherclick-thru rates are more likely to be selected or otherwise engagedwith by the querying user. The click-thru rate may be for queries orquery-types with respect to the querying user or other users of theonline social network. As an example and not by way of limitation,social-networking system 160 may identify the click-thru rate forparticular structured queries or query-types, and calculate higherscores for queries or query-types that have higher click-thru rates withrespect to the querying user or other users.

In particular embodiments, social-networking system 160 may calculatethe score for a structured query based at least in part on a conversionrate for the structured query. Queries or query-types with higherconversion rates are more likely to be further engaged with (e.g., thesearch results are more likely to be interacted with, sponsored resultsmore likely to be clicked and purchases made, etc.) after selection bythe querying user. The conversion rate may be for queries or query-typeswith respect to the querying user or other users of the online socialnetwork. As an example and not by way of limitation, social-networkingsystem 160 may identify the conversion rate for particular structuredqueries or query-types, and calculate higher scores for queries orquery-types that have higher conversion rates with respect to thequerying user or other users.

In particular embodiments, social-networking system 160 may calculatethe score for a structured query based at least in part on auser-preference of the querying user. The user-preferences could bespecified by the querying user, other users (e.g., parents or employersof the querying user), system administrators, third-party systems 170,or otherwise determined by social-networking system 160. Theuser-preferences may specify, for example, queries or query-types theuser is interested and not interested in receiving. As an example andnot by way of limitation, social-networking system 160 may identifyqueries or query-types preferred by the querying user, as specified bythe user-preference of the user, and calculate higher scores for queriesor query-types that are specified as being preferred by the user(similarly, queries or query-types specified as being not preferred maybe scored lower or completely excluded/assigned null scores).

In particular embodiments, social-networking system 160 may calculatethe score for a structured query based at least in part on a searchhistory users of the online social network. Structured queries thatreference social-graph elements (or types of elements) that the queryinguser has previously accessed (or been accessed by other users that arerelevant to the querying user, such as his friends), or are relevant tothe social-graph elements the querying user has previously accessed, maybe more likely to of interest to the querying user. Thus, thesestructured queries may be scored more highly. As an example and not byway of limitation, if querying user has previously visited the “StanfordUniversity” profile page but has never visited the “Stanford, Calif.”profile page, when determining the score for structured queriesreferencing these concepts, the social-networking system 160 maydetermine that the structured query referencing the concept node 204 for“Stanford University” has a relatively high score because the queryinguser has previously accessed the concept node 204 for the school. Asanother example and not by way of limitation, if the querying user haspreviously selected queries of particular query-types, and not selectedother types of queries, then when scoring structured queries ofparticular types, social-networking system 160 may score query-typespreviously selected by the querying user higher than other query-types.

In particular embodiments, social-networking system 160 may calculatethe score for a structured query based at least in part on whether thestructured query is a sponsored query. An advertiser (such as, forexample, the user or administrator of a particular profile pagecorresponding to a particular node) may sponsor a particular node suchthat a structured query referencing that node may be scored more highly.Sponsored queries are discussed in more detail below.

In particular embodiments, social-networking system 160 may calculatethe score for a structured query based at least in part on asocial-graph affinity of the user node 202 corresponding to the queryinguser with respect to one or more of the nodes referenced in thestructured query. Structured queries that reference nodes havingrelatively high social-graph affinity (e.g., a high affinitycoefficient) with respect to the querying user may be more likely to ofinterest to the querying user. Thus, these structured queries may bescored more highly. As an example and not by way of limitation,social-networking system 160 may score a structured query may be basedon the degree of separation (which may be one measure of affinity)between the user node 202 of the querying user and the particularsocial-graph elements referenced in the structured query. Structuredqueries that reference social-graph elements that are closer in thesocial graph 200 to the querying user (i.e., fewer degrees of separationbetween the element and the querying user's user node 202) may be scoredmore highly than structured queries that reference social-graph elementsthat are further from the user (i.e., more degrees of separation).

In particular embodiments, social-networking system 160 may calculatethe score for a structured query based at least in part on an intent ofthe querying user. In order to improve the likelihood a user will engagewith a suggested query, the intent of the user may first be determined,and then suggested queries related to that intent may be generated andsent to the user. The determined intent(s) may correspond to particularqueries or query-types, and queries matching the determined intent ofthe user may be scored more highly. The social-networking system 160 maydetermine the intent of the user based on a variety of factors, such as,for example, the time of day, the proximity of the user to other usersor objects, social-graph information, social-graph affinity, the searchhistory of the user, feedback from the user, the geographic location ofthe user, other relevant information about the user, or any combinationthereof. More information on determining the intent of a querying usermay be found in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/776,469, filed 25Feb. 2013, which is incorporated by reference.

In particular embodiments, social-networking system 160 may generate oneor more recommendation queries. In contrast to a suggested search querythat searches for particular objects associated with the online socialnetwork based on particular search criteria, as described previously, arecommendation query is a query for things that might be interesting forthe user to look at or discover. As an example and not by way oflimitation, social-networking system 160 may generate a recommendationquery such as “Books I should read”, “Movies I should watch”, “Photosyou might like”, or “People you might know”, which can be sent to thequerying user. In particular embodiments, the search results for arecommendation query could be generated by identifying content that maybe of interest to the querying user (e.g., content “liked” or accessedby the user's friends) and subtracting out content that has already beendiscovered or looked at by the querying user (e.g., content the queryinguser has already liked or accessed), and then generating search resultswith the remainder. As an example and not by way of limitation,social-networking system 160 may receive from the first user a selectionof one of the recommendation queries. For example, the querying user mayselect the recommendation query “Books I should read.” In response,social-networking system 160 may then generate one or more searchresults corresponding to the selected recommendation query. Each searchresult may comprise a reference to a user node 202 or concept node 204that not connected to the user node 202 corresponding to the queryinguser, but is connected to one or more other nodes corresponding tofirst-degree connections of the querying user (or connections within athreshold-degree of separation). In other words, the search results mayinclude users or concepts the first user is not directly connected to,but which the first user may be interested in because the first user'sfriends (or friends-of-friend, etc.) are connected to these recommendedusers or concepts. For example, in response to the recommendation query“Books I should read”, social-networking system 160 may generate searchresults corresponding to books “liked” by the querying user's friends,subtract out books already “liked” by the querying user, and send theremaining search results to the querying user, which may represent booksthe querying user may be interested in but has not yet “liked”. In thisway, the first user can search for things the user's friends “like” (orare otherwise connected to in social graph 200), while excludingredundant search results of things the first user already “likes” (or isotherwise already connected to in social graph 200). Although thisdisclosure describes generating recommendation queries in a particularmanner, this disclosure contemplates generating recommendation queriesin any suitable manner.

In particular embodiments, social-networking system 160 may send one ormore structured queries to the querying user. The structured queries maybe displayed on a page currently accessed by the first user. As anexample and not by way of limitation, the page may be a profile page ofthe online social network (e.g., a user-profile page of the queryinguser or another user, or a concept-profile page of a concept associatedwith the online social network), a newsfeed page of the online socialnetwork, a search-results page corresponding to a particular structuredquery, or another suitable page of the online social network. Inparticular embodiments, each sent structured query may have a scoregreater than a threshold score to the querying user. After scoring thestructured queries, the social-networking system 160 may then send onlythose structured queries having a score greater than a threshold score.As an example and not by way of limitation, when a user selects orinputs into a query field 350, social-networking system 160 may send thetop-seven scoring structured queries for display in a drop-down menu300, as illustrated in FIGS. 7A-7B, or may only send the top-six scoringstructured queries for display, as illustrated in FIG. 7C. In particularembodiments, the sent structured queries may be displayed on a newsfeedpage of the online social network. Queries having greater than athreshold score may automatically be pushed to a user. As an example andnot by way of limitation, the sent structured queries may be displayedas one or more stories in the newsfeed of the querying user as asuggested query separate from query field 350. The structured queriescould be generated and scored, as described previously, and rather thandisplaying the structured query in association with a query field 350,the structured query could be generated as a newsfeed store anddisplayed in a user's newsfeed in response to the user accessing anewsfeed page of the online social network. Although this disclosuredescribes sending structured queries in a particular manner, thisdisclosure contemplates sending structured queries in any suitablemanner.

FIG. 8 illustrates an example method 800 for generating defaultstructured search queries for a user. The method may begin at step 810,where the social-networking system 160 may access a social graph 200comprising a plurality of nodes and a plurality of edges 206 connectingthe nodes. The nodes may comprise a first user node 202 and a pluralityof second nodes (one or more user nodes 202, concepts nodes 204, or anycombination thereof). At step 820, social-networking system 160 maygenerate a plurality of structured queries that each comprise referencesto one or more nodes of the plurality of nodes and one or more edges ofthe plurality of edges. At step 830, social-networking system 160 maycalculate a score for each structured query based on one or moreuser-engagement factors. Any suitable user-engagement factors may beused to calculate the score. At step 840, social-networking system 160may send each structured query having a score greater than a thresholdscore to a first user for display on a page currently accessed by thefirst user. Particular embodiments may repeat one or more steps of themethod of FIG. 8, where appropriate. Although this disclosure describesand illustrates particular steps of the method of FIG. 8 as occurring ina particular order, this disclosure contemplates any suitable steps ofthe method of FIG. 8 occurring in any suitable order. Moreover, althoughthis disclosure describes and illustrates an example method forgenerating default structured search queries for a user including theparticular steps of the method of FIG. 8, this disclosure contemplatesany suitable method for generating default structured search queries fora user including any suitable steps, which may include all, some, ornone of the steps of the method of FIG. 8, where appropriate.Furthermore, although this disclosure describes and illustratesparticular components, devices, or systems carrying out particular stepsof the method of FIG. 8, this disclosure contemplates any suitablecombination of any suitable components, devices, or systems carrying outany suitable steps of the method of FIG. 8.

Sponsored Default Queries

In particular embodiments, social-networking system 160 may generatesponsored queries for a user. A particular advertiser may identify acompany, brand, product, event, person, or other thing that theadvertiser is associated with or wants to sponsor. Social-networkingsystem 160 may then identify social-graph elements corresponding to thething the advertiser wants to sponsor and generate one or morestructured queries referencing the identified social-graph elements. Asan example and not by way of limitation, FIG. 7A illustrates exampledefault queries of the online social network that include a sponsoredquery. In this example, an advertiser associated with the application“Online Poker” may want to sponsor queries referencing the application.In response to receiving an indication the advertiser wants to sponsorqueries referencing “Online Poker”, social-networking system 160 mayidentify the concept node 204 corresponding to the “Online Poker”application. Social-networking system 160 may then generate one or moresponsored queries referencing the identified social-graph element. As anexample and not by way of limitation, social-networking system 160 maygenerate a sponsored query “My friends who play Online Poker”, where thereference to “Online Poker” is a reference to the concept node 204corresponding to the application “Online Poker.” These sponsored queriesmay then be sent to the querying user and displayed on a page accessedby the user. Although this disclosure describes generating sponsoredqueries for a user in a particular manner, this disclosure contemplatesgenerating sponsored queries for a user in any suitable manner.

In particular embodiments, social-networking system 160 may identify anode of the plurality of nodes corresponding to an advertiser. Theidentified node may correspond to a particular profile page for acompany, brand, product, event, person, or other thing that theadvertiser is associated with or wants to sponsor. Social-networkingsystem 160 may also identify relevant edges 206 or edge-types connectedto the identified node, such that the edges 206 or edge-types may bereferenced in any generated sponsored queries. In particularembodiments, social-networking system 160 may receive from theadvertiser an indication that the advertiser wants to sponsor one ormore structured queries. The indication may identify one or more nodesof the plurality of nodes that correspond to the advertiser. As anexample and not by way of limitation, an advertiser associated with theapplication “Online Poker” may want to sponsor one or more structuredqueries for the application. In response, social-networking system 160may then identify the concept node 204 corresponding to the application“Online Poker”, illustrated in FIG. 2. As another example and not by wayof limitation, an advertiser may not want to directly advertise itscompany, brand, product, etc., and may instead want to indirectlysponsor a structured query. Continuing with the prior example, theadvertiser associated with the application “Online Poker” may want toindirectly sponsor one or more structured queries for the application,for example, by identifying users who play the application andsponsoring queries for those users. In response, social-networkingsystem 160 may identify friends of the querying user who play “OnlinePoker”, such as User “F”, as illustrated in FIG. 2, and may thengenerate a sponsored query such as “Games played by User F”, whichshould generate a search results for “Online Poker”. In this way, theadvertiser may indirectly sponsor queries for its company, brand,product, etc. In particular embodiments, social-networking system 160may provide a user interface to the advertiser that allows theadvertiser to select which structured queries to sponsor. As an exampleand not by way of limitation, social-networking system 160 may provide auser interface to the advertiser, wherein the user interface displaysone or more structured queries available for the advertiser to sponsor.For example, an interface similar to the interface displayed in FIG. 7Amay be provided to the advertiser, where a plurality of structuredqueries are displayed and where the advertiser may simply select orclick on a particular structured query to sponsor it (or may select orclick on some type of separate activatable link, such as a buttonindicating “Sponsor this query!”, providing similar functionality).Social-networking system 160 may then receive a selection from theadvertiser identifying one or more of the structured queries availablefor the advertiser to sponsor. These selected queries may then beprovided to one or more users as sponsored queries. Although thisdisclosure describes identifying particular objects of the online socialnetwork as corresponding to advertisers in a particular manner, thisdisclosure contemplates identifying any suitable objects of the onlinesocial network as corresponding to advertisers in any suitable manner.

In particular embodiments, social-networking system 160 may generate aplurality of structured queries that each comprise references to one ormore nodes of the plurality of nodes and one or more edges of theplurality of edges. At least one of the structured queries may be asponsored query comprising a reference to the identified node and one ormore edges of the plurality of edges that are connected to theidentified node. As an example and not by way of limitation, referencingFIG. 7A, social-networking system 160 may generate a plurality ofstructured queries as illustrated, where the suggested queries “Myfriends who went to Shawshank Redemption” and “My friends who playOnline Poker” are sponsored queries, and indicated as such. Thereferences to “Shawshank Redemption” and “Online Poker” are referencesto particular concept nodes 204 of social graph 200 corresponding to themovie “Shawshank Redemption” and the game “Online Poker”, respectively.Similarly, the references to “my friends”, “went to”, and “who play” arereferences to friend-type, watched-type, and played-type edges 206 ofsocial graph 200, respectively. In this example, a sponsor associatedwith “Shawshank Redemption” and “Online Poker” has sponsored thesequeries, such that they have been generated and provided to the queryinguser as suggested queries. Although this disclosure describes generatingparticular sponsored queries in a particular manner, this disclosurecontemplates generating any suitable sponsored queries in any suitablemanner.

In particular embodiments, social-networking system 160 may send one ormore of the generated structured queries to the first user. At least oneof the sent structured queries may be a sponsored query. As an exampleand not by way of limitation, social-networking system 160 may send aplurality of structured queries, as illustrated in FIG. 7A, and one ofthe structured queries may be the sponsored query “My friends who wentto Shawshank Redemption”, which may be sponsored by an advertiserassociated with the movie. In particular embodiments, a sponsored querymay include an indication that they are sponsored. As an example and notby way of limitation, referencing FIG. 7A, social-networking system 160may generate the sponsored query “My friends who play Online Poker” andthen include the text “(sponsored)” after the query to indicate that itis a sponsored query. The sponsored queries may be displayed on a pagecurrently accessed by the first user. As an example and not by way oflimitation, the page may be a profile page of the online social network(e.g., a user-profile page of the querying user or another user, or aconcept-profile page of a concept associated with the online socialnetwork), a newsfeed page of the online social network, a search-resultspage corresponding to a particular structured query, a notificationspage (e.g., a page displaying notifications, messages, emails, texts, orother communications associated with the online social network), a userinterface of a native application associated with the online network, oranother suitable page of the online social network. Although thisdisclosure describes sending particular sponsored queries in aparticular manner, this disclosure contemplates sending any suitablesponsored queries in any suitable manner.

FIG. 9 illustrates an example method 900 for generating sponsoredstructured queries for a user. The method may begin at step 910, wherethe social-networking system 160 may access a social graph 200comprising a plurality of nodes and a plurality of edges 206 connectingthe nodes. The nodes may comprise a first user node 202 and a pluralityof second nodes (one or more user nodes 202, concepts nodes 204, or anycombination thereof). At step 920, social-networking system 160 mayidentify a node of the plurality of nodes corresponding to anadvertiser. At step 930, social-networking system 160 may generate aplurality of structured queries that each comprise references to one ormore nodes of the plurality of nodes and one or more edges of theplurality of edges. At least one of the structured queries may be asponsored query comprising a reference to the identified node and one ormore edges of the plurality of edges that are connected to theidentified node. At step 940, social-networking system 160 may send oneor more of the generated structured queries to a first user for displayon a page currently accessed by the first user. At least one of the sentstructured queries may be a sponsored query. Particular embodiments mayrepeat one or more steps of the method of FIG. 9, where appropriate.Although this disclosure describes and illustrates particular steps ofthe method of FIG. 9 as occurring in a particular order, this disclosurecontemplates any suitable steps of the method of FIG. 9 occurring in anysuitable order. Moreover, although this disclosure describes andillustrates an example method for generating sponsored structuredqueries for a user including the particular steps of the method of FIG.9, this disclosure contemplates any suitable method for generatingsponsored structured queries for a user including any suitable steps,which may include all, some, or none of the steps of the method of FIG.9, where appropriate. Furthermore, although this disclosure describesand illustrates particular components, devices, or systems carrying outparticular steps of the method of FIG. 9, this disclosure contemplatesany suitable combination of any suitable components, devices, or systemscarrying out any suitable steps of the method of FIG. 9.

Dynamic Structured Search Queries

FIGS. 10A-10B illustrate example default queries and example searchresults of the online social network. In particular embodiments,social-networking system 160 may generate dynamic queries for a user. Adynamic query is a type of structured query that references additions,changes, or other updates to objects associated with the online socialnetwork. Dynamic queries may relate to trending activity or trendingqueries by other users on the online social network, such as, forexample, “Posts by my friends about [news story from yesterday]” or“Photos of my friend in [location where the querying user justvisited]”. Dynamic queries may also be related to recent/timely content.As an example and not by way of limitation, FIG. 10A illustrates exampledefault queries, where the structured query “Recent photos of my friends(+2)” is a dynamic query referencing recently added content to theonline social network, where the reference to “(+2)” indicates thenumber of new photos that the query will produce. Similarly, the dynamicqueries may relate to changes to search results, either over time orsince the query was last run. For example, if a user previously searchedfor “Single girls in Palo Alto”, later the user may be provided with thestructured query “Single girls in Palo Alto (+2)”, where the referenceto “(+2)” indicates the change in the search results for the query sincethe user last ran the search. Dynamic queries may provide an elegant wayfor users of the online social network to see that particular updateshave occurred or are occurring on the online social network withouthaving to actually run a particular search query. Although thisdisclosure describes generating dynamic queries for a user in aparticular manner, this disclosure contemplates dynamic queries for auser in any suitable manner.

In particular embodiments, social-networking system 160 may generate aplurality of structured queries that each comprise references to one ormore nodes of the plurality of nodes and one or more edges of theplurality of edges. At least one of the structured queries may be adynamic query comprising a reference one or more updates to the socialgraph. The updates referenced in a dynamic query may be additions,changes, or other suitable updates to objects associated with the onlinesocial network. The particular update may be referenced in the dynamicquery. In particular embodiments, the one or more updates to socialgraph 200 may comprise updates within a threshold period of time. As anexample and not by way of limitation, referencing FIG. 10A,social-networking system 160 may generate a plurality of structuredqueries, as illustrated, one of which is the dynamic query “Recentphotos of my friends (+2 new)” where the reference to “(+2 new)” is areference to updates to social graph 200. In this case, the “(+2 new)”may indicate that two new photos of friends of the querying user havebeen added to the online social network (each photo corresponding to anewly added concept node 204 of social graph 200) within a thresholdperiod of time. In particular embodiments, the one or more updates tosocial graph 200 may comprise updates since a particular structuredquery was last selected by the first user. As an example and not by wayof limitation, again referencing FIG. 10A, in the dynamic query “Recentphotos of my friends (+2 new)”, the reference to “(+2 new)” may insteadindicate that two new photos of friends of the querying user have beenadded to the online social network since the last time the querying userran the query “Recent photos of my friends”. In particular embodiments,the one or more updates to social graph 200 may comprise updatesperformed by one or more users within a threshold degree of separationof the querying user. The threshold degree of separation may be, forexample, one, two, three, or all. As an example and not by way oflimitation, social-networking system 160 may generate dynamic queriesreferencing updates by the querying user's friends (e.g., new photos bythe user's friends). As another example and not by way of limitation,social-networking system 160 may generate dynamic queries referencingglobal updates (e.g., globally trending topics in posts). Although thisdisclosure describes generating particular dynamic queries in aparticular manner, this disclosure contemplates generating any suitabledynamic queries in any suitable manner.

In particular embodiments, social-networking system 160 may generatedynamic queries referencing a variety of updates to the online socialnetwork. Any suitable updates to social graph 200 may be referenced. Inparticular embodiments, the updates to social graph 200 may comprisetrending activity on the online social network. Trends may be measurewith respect to users within a threshold degree of separation, and maybe measured with respect to activity over any suitable time period. Inparticular embodiments, the updates to social graph 200 may comprisetrending queries of the online social network. The trending queries maycomprise references to one or more nodes of the plurality of nodespreviously searched for by one or more users of the online socialnetwork. As an example and not by way of limitation, social-networkingsystem 160 may generate a particular structured query for the queryinguser (e.g., “Photos taken at The Old Pro”, as illustrated in FIG. 7B)because other users of the online social network (e.g., the queryinguser's friends) have run that particular structured query. In particularembodiments, the updates to social graph 200 may comprise adding one ormore concept nodes 204 to social graph 200 corresponding to one or morecontent objects added to the online social network, respectively. Inthis case, the dynamic queries may comprise a reference to the conceptnodes added to social graph 200. The content object added to the onlinesocial network may be any suitable content object, such as, for example,multimedia objects, posts, or other suitable objects associated with theonline social network. As an example and not by way of limitation,continuing with the example illustrated in FIG. 7B, social-networkingsystem 160 may determine that references to the actor “Ben Affleck” aretrending in posts on the online social network by friends of thequerying user. Referencing these updates, social-networking system 160may then generate a dynamic query “My friends posts about Ben Affleck(+18)”, where the reference to “(+18)” indicates that eighteen postshave been made by the querying user's friends about “Ben Affleck”. Inthis example, the one or more updates to social graph 200 may comprisetrending topics or keywords associated with the posts (e.g., the term“Ben Affleck”). In particular embodiments, the updates to social graph200 may comprise updates to one or more edges connecting one or morenodes. Edges 206 may be added, deleted, or changed within social graph200 in response to activity by users of the online social network. As anexample and not by way of limitation, social-networking system 160 maygenerate a dynamic query “Newly single girls in Palo Alto (+2 new)”,where the reference to “(+2 new)” indicates that two female users wholive in the city Palo Alto have changed their relationship status from“in a relationship” to “single”, thus changing the edge-type indicatingtheir relationship status from an in-a-relationship-type to asingle-type edge 206. As another example and not by way of limitation,social-networking system 160 may generate a dynamic query “Friends whohave check-in at the Old Pro (+3)”, where the reference to “(+3)”indicates that two friends of the querying user have “checked-in” at thelocation “Old Pro”, where checking-in creates a check-in-type edge 206between the user nodes 202 corresponding to those users and the conceptnode 204 for the location “Old Pro”. Although this disclosure describesgenerating dynamic queries referencing particular updates, thisdisclosure contemplates generating dynamic queries referencing anysuitable updates.

In particular embodiments, social-networking system 160 may generatestructured queries referencing changes in search results. Whengenerating particular structured queries, social-networking system 160may also identify the search results corresponding to the structuredqueries prior to the user selecting any query in order to determine ifany of the search results have changed. In the case that search resultshave change, for example, because there are new objects that now matchthe search criteria of the structured query, then social-networkingsystem 160 may generate a dynamic query referencing the change in searchresults. As an example and not by way of limitation, referencing FIG.10A, social-networking system 160 may generate the dynamic query “Recentphotos of my friends (+2 new)”, which indicates that the search resultscorresponding to the structured query includes two new results. Thequerying user may then select this structured query, andsocial-networking system 160 may generate a search-results page, wherethe search results 1010 include two results marked as “New Results”,which represent the new search results referenced by the dynamic query.Social-networking system 160 may generate structured queries referencingchanges in search results in any suitable manner. As an example and notby way of limitation, social-networking system 160 may access a priorstructured query previously selected by the first user (e.g., “Recentphotos of my friends”). Social-networking system 160 may then identifychanges to the search results corresponding to the prior structuredquery (e.g., identifying two new results). The identified changes to thesearch results may be changes within a threshold period of time, orchanges since the prior structured query was last selected by the firstuser. Social-networking system 160 may then generate one or more dynamicqueries, wherein at least one of the dynamic queries comprises the priorstructured and references to the identified changes to the searchresults corresponding to the prior structured query. Although thisdisclosure describes generating structured queries referencing changesin search results in a particular manner, this disclosure contemplatesgenerating structured queries referencing changes in search results inany suitable manner.

In particular embodiments, social-networking system 160 may send one ormore of the generated structured queries to the first user. At least oneof the sent structured queries may be a dynamic query. The dynamic querymay be displayed with a reference indicating the particular updates tosocial graph 200 associated with the dynamic query. As an example andnot by way of limitation, social-networking system 160 may send aplurality of structured queries, as illustrated in FIG. 10A, and one ofthe structured queries may be the dynamic query “Recent photos of myfriends (+2 new)”, which references newly added photos tagged withfriends of the querying user. The dynamic queries may be displayed on apage currently accessed by the first user. As an example and not by wayof limitation, the page may be a profile page of the online socialnetwork (e.g., a user-profile page of the querying user or another user,or a concept-profile page of a concept associated with the online socialnetwork), a newsfeed page of the online social network, a search-resultspage corresponding to a particular structured query, a notificationspage (e.g., a page displaying notifications, messages, emails, texts, orother communications associated with the online social network), a userinterface of a native application associated with the online network, oranother suitable page of the online social network. Although thisdisclosure describes sending dynamic queries to users in a particularmanner, this disclosure contemplates sending dynamic queries to users inany suitable manner.

FIG. 11 illustrates an example method 1100 for generating dynamicstructured queries for a user. The method may begin at step 1110, wherethe social-networking system 160 may access a social graph 200comprising a plurality of nodes and a plurality of edges 206 connectingthe nodes. The nodes may comprise a first user node 202 and a pluralityof second nodes (one or more user nodes 202, concepts nodes 204, or anycombination thereof). At step 1120, social-networking system 160 maygenerate a plurality of structured queries that each comprise referencesto one or more nodes of the plurality of nodes and one or more edges ofthe plurality of edges. At least one of the structured queries may be adynamic query comprising a reference one or more updates to the socialgraph. Any suitable updates to the social graph may be referenced. Atstep 1130, social-networking system 160 may send one or more of thegenerated structured queries to a first user for display on a pagecurrently accessed by the first user. At least one of the sentstructured queries may be a dynamic query. Particular embodiments mayrepeat one or more steps of the method of FIG. 11, where appropriate.Although this disclosure describes and illustrates particular steps ofthe method of FIG. 11 as occurring in a particular order, thisdisclosure contemplates any suitable steps of the method of FIG. 11occurring in any suitable order. Moreover, although this disclosuredescribes and illustrates an example method for generating dynamicstructured queries for a user including the particular steps of themethod of FIG. 11, this disclosure contemplates any suitable method forgenerating dynamic structured queries for a user including any suitablesteps, which may include all, some, or none of the steps of the methodof FIG. 11, where appropriate. Furthermore, although this disclosuredescribes and illustrates particular components, devices, or systemscarrying out particular steps of the method of FIG. 11, this disclosurecontemplates any suitable combination of any suitable components,devices, or systems carrying out any suitable steps of the method ofFIG. 11.

Generating Search Results

In particular embodiments, in response to a structured query receivedfrom a querying user, the social-networking system 160 may generate oneor more search results, where each search result matches (orsubstantially matches) the terms of the structured query (which includessponsored queries, dynamic queries, and other types of structuredqueries). The social-networking system 160 may receive a structuredquery from a querying user (also referred to as the “first user”,corresponding to a first user node 202). In response to the structuredquery, the social-networking system 160 may generate one or more searchresults corresponding to the structured query. Each search result mayinclude link to a profile page and a description or summary of theprofile page (or the node corresponding to that page). The searchresults may be presented and sent to the querying user as asearch-results page. FIGS. 10B and 12B illustrate example search-resultspages generated in response to particular structured queries. Thestructured query used to generate a particular search-results page maybe shown in query field 350, and the various search results generated inresponse to the structured query are illustrated in a results field 1010for presented search results. In particular embodiments, the query field350 may also serve as the title bar for the page. In other words, thetitle bar and query field 350 may effectively be a unified field on thesearch-results page. As an example, FIG. 12B illustrates asearch-results page with the structured query “My friends who work atFacebook” in query field 350. This structured query also effectivelyserves as the title for the generated page, where the page shows aplurality search results of users of the online social network who areemployees at the company “Facebook”. The search-results page may alsoinclude a field for modifying search results (e.g., field 1220 in FIG.12B) and a field for sharing structured queries and search results(e.g., field 1230 in FIG. 12B). When generating the search results, thesocial-networking system 160 may generate one or more snippets for eachsearch result, where the snippets are contextual information about thetarget of the search result (i.e., contextual information about thesocial-graph entity, profile page, or other content corresponding to theparticular search result). Although this disclosure describes andillustrates particular search-results pages, this disclosurecontemplates any suitable search-results pages.

In particular embodiments, the social-networking system 160 may generateone or more search results corresponding to a structured query. Thesearch results may identify resources or content (e.g., user-profilepages, content-profile pages, or external resources) that match or arelikely to be related to the search query. In particular embodiments,each search result may correspond to a particular user node 202 orconcept node 204 of the social graph 200. The search result may includea link to the profile page associated with the node, as well ascontextual information about the node (i.e., contextual informationabout the user or concept that corresponds to the node). As an exampleand not by way of limitation, referencing 12B, the structured query “Myfriends who work at Facebook” in query field 350 generated the varioussearch results illustrated in results field 1010. Each search result inresults field 1010 shows a link to a profile page of a user (illustratedas the user's name, which contains an inline link to the profile page)and contextual information about that user that corresponds to a usernode 202 of the social graph 200. As another example and not by way oflimitation, referencing FIG. 10B, the structured query “Recent photos ofmy friends” in query field 350 generated the various search resultsillustrated in results field 1010. Each search result illustrated inFIG. 10B shows a thumbnail of a photograph that corresponds to a conceptnode 204 of the social graph. In particular embodiments, each searchresult may correspond to a node that is connected to one or more of theselected nodes by one or more of the selected edges of the structuredquery. In particular embodiments, the social-networking system 160 mayalso transmit advertisements or other sponsored content to the clientsystem 130 in response to the structured query. The advertisements maybe included in as part of the search results, or separately. Theadvertisements may correspond to one or more of the objects referencedin the search results. In particular embodiments, the social-networkingsystem 160 may filter out one or more search results identifyingparticular resources or content based on the privacy settings associatedwith the users associated with those resources or content. Although thisdisclosure describes generating particular search results in aparticular manner, this disclosure contemplates generating any suitablesearch results in any suitable manner.

More information on generating search results may be found in U.S.patent application Ser. No. 13/556,017, filed 23 Jul. 2012, and U.S.patent application Ser. No. 13/731,939, filed 31 Dec. 2012, each ofwhich is incorporated by reference.

Sharing Structured Search Queries

FIGS. 12A-12C illustrate example pages of an online social network. Inparticular embodiments, social-networking system 160 may allow users toshare structured queries and search results with other users of theonline social network. Users of the online social network may want toshare structured queries and their corresponding search results withother users of the online social network, allowing those users to viewthe query and/or search results. Social-networking system 160 mayreceive a selection from a first user of a structured query that thefirst user wants to share with one or more second users of the onlinesocial network. Structured queries and search results may be shared withany suitable users of the online social network, such as, for example,users within a threshold degree of separation of the first user,particular groups or networks, or publically. Social-networking system160 may then send the selected structured query to one or more secondusers. As an example and not by way of limitation, a first user mayselect a particular structured query, such as “My friends who work atFacebook”, as illustrated in the FIG. 12A, which illustrated thenewsfeed page of the user “Matthew”. Social-networking system 160 maythen generate search results corresponding to that structured query, asillustrated in FIG. 12B. The search-results page may include anactivatable link allowing the first user to share the structured queryand/or search results directly from the search-results page, such as the“Share this search with your friends!” link illustrated in field 1230.The first user may select this link, and in response social-networkingsystem 160 may share the structured query and one or more of the searchresults by displaying them a page of a second user, such as the seconduser's newsfeed page as illustrated in FIG. 12C, which illustrates thenewsfeed page of the user “Justin”. The second user may then select theshared query, which may then be executed by social-networking system 160for the second user. Although this disclosure describes sharingstructured queries in a particular manner, this disclosure contemplatessharing structured queries in any suitable manner.

In particular embodiments, social-networking system 160 may receive froma first user a selection of a structured query the first user wants toshare with one or more second users of the plurality of users. Users maywant to share queries or results that are interesting or that otherusers may want to view or otherwise engage with. The selection mayindicate whether the user wants to share the query, the search results,or both, and may indicate which users to share with (e.g., particularusers, friends, friends-of-friends, publically, etc.). As an example andnot by way of limitation, if a first user runs a particular structuredquery, such as “Friends of Mark”, social-networking system 160 maygenerate a search-results page corresponding to this query. The firstuser may then be able to share this query by copying the URLcorresponding to the search-results page (e.g.,https://www.facebook.com/search/[Mark]/photos-of) and posting it as astory on the user's profile page, which may then be shared as a story inthe newsfeed of other users of the online social network. In particularembodiments, a first user may share a query and/or search resultsdirectly from a search-results page. The search-results page may includea field allowing the first user to indicate the user wants to share thestructured query, the corresponding search results, or both, asappropriate. As an example and not by way of limitation,social-networking system 160 may send a search-results page to the firstuser, where the search-results page may comprise one or more searchresults corresponding to a selected structured query. The search-resultspage may also comprise an activatable link enabling the first user toshare the query and/or search results with the one or more second users.For example, referencing FIG. 12B, the search-results page may includean activatable link such as the “Share this search with your friends!”link illustrated in field 1230. The first user may click or otherwiseactivate this link, and social-networking system 160 may receive theindication the first user has activated the activatable link on thesearch-results page in order to share the structured query and/or thesearch results. In particular embodiments, a first user may share aquery directly from a query field. As an example and not by way oflimitation, social-networking system 160 may send one or more structuredqueries to a first user, which may be displayed in a drop-down menu 300associated with a query field 350. One or more of the structured queriesmay be displayed with an activatable link with the structured query,such as a “Share this query!” button next to the query, which could beclicked or otherwise selected directly from drop-down menu 300, allowingthe user to run the query, share the query, share the search results, orany combination thereof. Although this disclosure describes userssharing structured queries in a particular manner, this disclosurecontemplates users sharing structured queries in any suitable manner.

In particular embodiments, in response to receiving a selection of astructured query the first user wants to share, social-networking system160 may send the structured query for display on a page associated withone or more second users. In the case where search results are shared,the search results may be generated with respect to the first user orwith respect to the second user. The shared structured query (and/orsearch results) may be displayed on a page currently accessed by thesecond user. As an example and not by way of limitation, the page may bea profile page of the online social network (e.g., a user-profile pageof the user, or a concept-profile page of a concept associated with theonline social network), a newsfeed page of the online social network, asearch-results page corresponding to a particular structured query, anotifications page (e.g., a page displaying notifications, messages,emails, texts, or other communications associated with the online socialnetwork), a user interface of a native application associated with theonline network, or another suitable page of the online social network.In particular embodiments, the page may be a newsfeed page of the onlinesocial network, and the shared structured query and/or search resultsmay be displayed as a story in a newsfeed. As an example and not by wayof limitation, referencing FIG. 12C, social-networking system 160 maygenerate a newsfeed page as illustrated for the user “Justin” inresponse to the user “Matthew” sharing the search query “My friends whowork as Facebook”. The shared structured query and search results aredisplayed to the user “Justin” as a story in the user's newsfeed, asillustrated in field 1240. In particular embodiments, the page may be aprofile page of the online social network corresponding to the seconduser. As an example and not by way of limitation, similar to the exampleillustrated in FIG. 12C, the first user may share the structured queryand/or search results by posting a link as a post on the profile page ofa second user, and the shared structured query and/or search results maythen be displayed as a post on the second user's profile page. Inparticular embodiments, the page may be a search-results pagecorresponding to a particular structured query. The structured query maycomprise references to one or more nodes and one or more edges, and thesearch-results page may have been generated in response to thisstructured query. As an example and not by way of limitation, the sharedstructured query and/or search results may be displayed on asearch-results page accessed by the second user as a suggested query.Although this disclosure describes sending shared structured queries ina particular manner, this disclosure contemplates sending sharedstructured queries in any suitable manner.

In particular embodiments, social-networking system 160 may receive aselection of a shared structured query from a second user. In responseto receiving a shared structured query from a first user, the seconduser may select the shared structured query. Social-networking system160 may then generate one or more search results corresponding to theshared query and send the search results to the second user (e.g., as asearch-results page). The search results may be generated with respectto the sharing/first user, or with respect the receiving/second user. Asan example and not by way of limitation, in response to the user“Justin” clicking on the structured query “My friends who work atFacebook” shared by the user “Matthew” in FIG. 12C, social-networkingsystem 160 may generate one or more search results with respect to theuser “Matthew”. In other words, when the user “Justin” selects theshared query, social-networking system 160 generates search resultsshowing users who work at Facebook who are friends of the user“Matthew”. The “my friends” constraint in the structured query isexecuted with respect to the first user (“Matthew”) in this case, eventhough it is being run by the second user (“Justin”). Social-networkingsystem 160 may generate search results corresponding to this structuredquery for the user “Justin” as if the structured query were executed bythe user “Matthew”, allowing the user “Justin” to see the same searchresults that the user “Matthew” would see. Alternatively, some searchresults may be filtered out based on the privacy settings associatedwith the users corresponding to the search results (for example, certainsearch results may be visible to the user “Matthew” but not visible tothe user “Justin” based on privacy settings associated with the searchresult). As another example and not by way of limitation, in response tothe user “Justin” clicking on the structured query “My friends who workat Facebook” shared by the user “Matthew” in FIG. 12C, social-networkingsystem 160 may generate one or more search results with respect to theuser “Justin”. In other words, when the user “Justin” selects the sharedquery, social-networking system 160 generates search results showingusers who work at Facebook who are friends of the user “Justin”. The “myfriends” constraint in the structured query is executed with respect tothe second user (“Justin”) in this case, even though it was shared bythe first user (“Matthew”). Although this disclosure describesgenerating search results for a shared query in a particular manner,this disclosure contemplates generating search results for a sharedquery in any suitable manner.

FIG. 13 illustrates an example method 1300 for sharing search queries onan online social network. The method may begin at step 1310, where thesocial-networking system 160 may access a social graph 200 comprising aplurality of nodes and a plurality of edges 206 connecting the nodes.The nodes may comprise a first user node 202 and a plurality of secondnodes (one or more user nodes 202, concepts nodes 204, or anycombination thereof). At step 1320, social-networking system 160 mayreceive from a first user a selection of a structured query the firstuser wants to share with one or more second users of the plurality ofusers. The structured query may comprise references to one or more nodesof the plurality of nodes and one or more edges of the plurality ofedges. At step 1330, social-networking system 160 may send thestructured query for display on a page associated with one or more ofthe second users. Particular embodiments may repeat one or more steps ofthe method of FIG. 13, where appropriate. Although this disclosuredescribes and illustrates particular steps of the method of FIG. 13 asoccurring in a particular order, this disclosure contemplates anysuitable steps of the method of FIG. 13 occurring in any suitable order.Moreover, although this disclosure describes and illustrates an examplemethod for sharing search queries on an online social network includingthe particular steps of the method of FIG. 13, this disclosurecontemplates any suitable method for sharing search queries on an onlinesocial network including any suitable steps, which may include all,some, or none of the steps of the method of FIG. 13, where appropriate.Furthermore, although this disclosure describes and illustratesparticular components, devices, or systems carrying out particular stepsof the method of FIG. 13, this disclosure contemplates any suitablecombination of any suitable components, devices, or systems carrying outany suitable steps of the method of FIG. 13.

Structured Search Queries with Previews of Search Results

In particular embodiments, social-networking system 160 may generatestructured queries that are displayed with previews of the searchresults corresponding to the queries. When a structured query isgenerated, as described previously, social-networking system 160 mayalso generate search results corresponding to one or more of thestructured queries. The search results may be generated concurrentlywith the structured queries, or in response to a selection (e.g.,mousing over) of one of the structured queries by the querying user. Thestructured queries and search results could then be sent to the queryinguser for display, where one or more of the queries could be displayedwith a preview of the search results corresponding to the query. Thepreview could be displayed in any suitable manner. As an example and notby way of limitation, the querying user may mouse-over the structuredquery “My friends who work at Facebook”, as illustrated in FIG. 12A, anda preview for that structured query may be generated and displayed justbelow the query, where the preview shows the names and thumbnail photosof some of the matching search results. Previews of search results maybe displayed in association with any suitable type of query describedherein. Furthermore, if a structured query is shared with other users,as described previously, the shared structured query may be displayedwith a preview of the search results. As an example and not by way oflimitation, for the shared structured query “Matthew's friends who workat Facebook”, as illustrated in FIG. 12C, a preview of the searchresults for that shared query may be displayed in the newsfeed storyalong with the shared query. By generating previews to display withstructured queries, social-networking system 160 may provide an a quickand convenient way for users of the online social network to reviewsearch results for a particular query without having to leave thecurrent page accessed by the user since search results for multiplequeries may be previewed from the query field. Although this disclosuredescribes generating structured queries with previews of search resultsin a particular manner, this disclosure contemplates generatingstructured queries with previews of search results in any suitablemanner.

In particular embodiments, social-networking system 160 may generate aplurality of structured queries and generate one or more search resultscorresponding to at least one of the structured queries. The searchresults corresponding to each structured query may be generatedconcurrently with the structured queries, or may be generated inresponse to a selection of the structured query by the querying user. Asan example and not by way of limitation, social-networking system 160may generate a plurality of structured queries, and a plurality of setsof search results corresponding to each structured query, respectively.In this case, all of the structured queries and their correspondingsearch results may be generated concurrently. As another example and notby way of limitation, social-networking system 160 may generate aplurality of structured queries. Social-networking system 160 may thengenerate search results for one or more of the structured queries, forexample, in response to the querying user mousing over on of thestructured queries. Alternatively, the search results for a particularstructured query may be generated before receiving a selection from theuser, sent to the user's client system 130, and using a client-sideprocess the search results may be retrieved (e.g., from a client-sidecache) and displayed as a preview once the querying user mouses over thequery. Although this disclosure describes generating structured queriesand search results in a particular manner, this disclosure contemplatesgenerating structured queries and search results in any suitable manner.

In particular embodiments, social-networking system 160 may send one ormore of the structured queries for display to the first user. At leastone of the structured queries may be displayed with a preview of one ormore of the search results corresponding to the structured query. Thepreview may comprise some or all of the search results corresponding tothe structured query, though typically the preview will only include asmall sub-set of the total search results. Furthermore, the preview maybe displayed in association with query field 300 (e.g., in drop-downmenu 300, adjacent to the respective structured query, as illustrated inFIG. 12A), or in another suitable location (e.g., on a sidebar on thepage, or as a pop-up overlay over the query as it is moused-over). Eachsearch result may correspond to a particular node of social graph 200.Moreover, each search result of the preview may include a thumbnailimage or one or more snippets of contextual information associated withthe node corresponding to the search result. Furthermore, each searchresult of the preview may be associated with a particular profile pageof the online social network, and each snippet may comprise informationfrom the profile page associated with the search result. As an exampleand not by way of limitation, referencing FIG. 12A, in response toreceiving the text query “friends who work at facebook” from thequerying user, social-networking system 160 may generate a plurality ofstructured queries and send those queries for display in a drop-downmenu 300 associated with query field 350. One of the structured queriesmay be “My friends who work at Facebook”, as illustrated in field 1210.The structured query illustrated in field 1210 is displayed with apreview of some of the search results corresponding to the structuredquery “My friends who work at Facebook”, where the name and thumbnailimage of each search result is displayed in the preview. The structuredqueries with previews may be displayed on a page currently accessed bythe first user. As an example and not by way of limitation, the page maybe a profile page of the online social network (e.g., a user-profilepage of the querying user or another user, or a concept-profile page ofa concept associated with the online social network), a newsfeed page ofthe online social network, a search-results page corresponding to aparticular structured query, a notifications page (e.g., a pagedisplaying notifications, messages, emails, texts, or othercommunications associated with the online social network), a userinterface of a native application associated with the online network, oranother suitable page of the online social network. In particularembodiments, the querying user may share the structured query with thepreview with one or more second users of the online social network. Thesearch results may be generated with respect to the sharing/queryinguser, or with respect the receiving/second user. As an example and notby way of limitation, a first user may share the structured query “Myfriends who work at Facebook” and the corresponding search results, asillustrated in FIG. 12B, for example, by activating the link “Share thissearch with your friends!” in field 1230. In response, social-networkingsystem 160 may generate a story that is displayed in the newsfeed of asecond user, as illustrated in FIG. 12C. The shared structured query,“Matthew's friends who work at Facebook”, is displayed with a preview ofthe search results corresponding to the query, as illustrated in field1240. In this example, the search results in the preview illustrated infield 1240 are generated with respect to the first user (“Matthew”),though they could also be generated with respect to the second user(“Justin”). Although this disclosure describes generating previews forsearch queries in a particular manner, this disclosure contemplatesgenerating previews for search queries in any suitable manner.

In particular embodiments, the structured queries with previews ofsearch results may be sent in response to a selection by the queryinguser. Social-networking system 160 may receive from the first user aselection of one of the structured queries. As an example and not by wayof limitation, the first user may click-on, touch, mouse-over, orotherwise provide an indication that a particular structured query isbeing selected. In response, social-networking system 160 may generatesearch results for at least the selected structured query. The previewof the search results may then be displayed with the selected structuredquery. The sent structured queries may be displayed in a drop-down menu300 on the page, wherein the preview of the search results may bedisplayed in the drop-down menu 300 (e.g., below the respectivestructured query). Although this disclosure describes generatingpreviews for search queries in a particular manner, this disclosurecontemplates generating previews for search queries in any suitablemanner.

FIG. 14 illustrates an example method 1400 for generating search querieswith previews of search results. The method may begin at step 1410,where the social-networking system 160 may access a social graph 200comprising a plurality of nodes and a plurality of edges 206 connectingthe nodes. The nodes may comprise a first user node 202 and a pluralityof second nodes (one or more user nodes 202, concepts nodes 204, or anycombination thereof). At step 1420, social-networking system 160 maygenerate a plurality of structured queries that each comprise referencesto one or more nodes of the plurality of nodes and one or more edges ofthe plurality of edges. At step 1430, social-networking system 160 maygenerate one or more search results corresponding to at least one of thestructure queries. At step 1440, social-networking system 160 may sendone or more of the structured queries for display on a page currentlyaccessed by a first user. At least one of the structured queries may bedisplayed with a preview of one or more of the search resultscorresponding to the structured query. Particular embodiments may repeatone or more steps of the method of FIG. 14, where appropriate. Althoughthis disclosure describes and illustrates particular steps of the methodof FIG. 14 as occurring in a particular order, this disclosurecontemplates any suitable steps of the method of FIG. 14 occurring inany suitable order. Moreover, although this disclosure describes andillustrates an example method for generating search queries withpreviews of search results including the particular steps of the methodof FIG. 14, this disclosure contemplates any suitable method forgenerating search queries with previews of search results including anysuitable steps, which may include all, some, or none of the steps of themethod of FIG. 14, where appropriate. Furthermore, although thisdisclosure describes and illustrates particular components, devices, orsystems carrying out particular steps of the method of FIG. 14, thisdisclosure contemplates any suitable combination of any suitablecomponents, devices, or systems carrying out any suitable steps of themethod of FIG. 14.

Social Graph Affinity and Coefficient

In particular embodiments, social-networking system 160 may determinethe social-graph affinity (which may be referred to herein as“affinity”) of various social-graph entities for each other. Affinitymay represent the strength of a relationship or level of interestbetween particular objects associated with the online social network,such as users, concepts, content, actions, advertisements, other objectsassociated with the online social network, or any suitable combinationthereof. Affinity may also be determined with respect to objectsassociated with third-party systems 170 or other suitable systems. Anoverall affinity for a social-graph entity for each user, subjectmatter, or type of content may be established. The overall affinity maychange based on continued monitoring of the actions or relationshipsassociated with the social-graph entity. Although this disclosuredescribes determining particular affinities in a particular manner, thisdisclosure contemplates determining any suitable affinities in anysuitable manner.

In particular embodiments, social-networking system 160 may measure orquantify social-graph affinity using an affinity coefficient (which maybe referred to herein as “coefficient”). The coefficient may representor quantify the strength of a relationship between particular objectsassociated with the online social network. The coefficient may alsorepresent a probability or function that measures a predictedprobability that a user will perform a particular action based on theuser's interest in the action. In this way, a user's future actions maybe predicted based on the user's prior actions, where the coefficientmay be calculated at least in part a the history of the user's actions.Coefficients may be used to predict any number of actions, which may bewithin or outside of the online social network. As an example and not byway of limitation, these actions may include various types ofcommunications, such as sending messages, posting content, or commentingon content; various types of a observation actions, such as accessing orviewing profile pages, media, or other suitable content; various typesof coincidence information about two or more social-graph entities, suchas being in the same group, tagged in the same photograph, checked-in atthe same location, or attending the same event; or other suitableactions. Although this disclosure describes measuring affinity in aparticular manner, this disclosure contemplates measuring affinity inany suitable manner.

In particular embodiments, social-networking system 160 may use avariety of factors to calculate a coefficient. These factors mayinclude, for example, user actions, types of relationships betweenobjects, location information, other suitable factors, or anycombination thereof. In particular embodiments, different factors may beweighted differently when calculating the coefficient. The weights foreach factor may be static or the weights may change according to, forexample, the user, the type of relationship, the type of action, theuser's location, and so forth. Ratings for the factors may be combinedaccording to their weights to determine an overall coefficient for theuser. As an example and not by way of limitation, particular useractions may be assigned both a rating and a weight while a relationshipassociated with the particular user action is assigned a rating and acorrelating weight (e.g., so the weights total 100%). To calculate thecoefficient of a user towards a particular object, the rating assignedto the user's actions may comprise, for example, 60% of the overallcoefficient, while the relationship between the user and the object maycomprise 40% of the overall coefficient. In particular embodiments, thesocial-networking system 160 may consider a variety of variables whendetermining weights for various factors used to calculate a coefficient,such as, for example, the time since information was accessed, decayfactors, frequency of access, relationship to information orrelationship to the object about which information was accessed,relationship to social-graph entities connected to the object, short- orlong-term averages of user actions, user feedback, other suitablevariables, or any combination thereof. As an example and not by way oflimitation, a coefficient may include a decay factor that causes thestrength of the signal provided by particular actions to decay withtime, such that more recent actions are more relevant when calculatingthe coefficient. The ratings and weights may be continuously updatedbased on continued tracking of the actions upon which the coefficient isbased. Any type of process or algorithm may be employed for assigning,combining, averaging, and so forth the ratings for each factor and theweights assigned to the factors. In particular embodiments,social-networking system 160 may determine coefficients usingmachine-learning algorithms trained on historical actions and past userresponses, or data farmed from users by exposing them to various optionsand measuring responses. Although this disclosure describes calculatingcoefficients in a particular manner, this disclosure contemplatescalculating coefficients in any suitable manner.

In particular embodiments, social-networking system 160 may calculate acoefficient based on a user's actions. Social-networking system 160 maymonitor such actions on the online social network, on a third-partysystem 170, on other suitable systems, or any combination thereof. Anysuitable type of user actions may be tracked or monitored. Typical useractions include viewing profile pages, creating or posting content,interacting with content, tagging or being tagged in images, joininggroups, listing and confirming attendance at events, checking-in atlocations, liking particular pages, creating pages, and performing othertasks that facilitate social action. In particular embodiments,social-networking system 160 may calculate a coefficient based on theuser's actions with particular types of content. The content may beassociated with the online social network, a third-party system 170, oranother suitable system. The content may include users, profile pages,posts, news stories, headlines, instant messages, chat roomconversations, emails, advertisements, pictures, video, music, othersuitable objects, or any combination thereof. Social-networking system160 may analyze a user's actions to determine whether one or more of theactions indicate an affinity for subject matter, content, other users,and so forth. As an example and not by way of limitation, if a user maymake frequently posts content related to “coffee” or variants thereof,social-networking system 160 may determine the user has a highcoefficient with respect to the concept “coffee”. Particular actions ortypes of actions may be assigned a higher weight and/or rating thanother actions, which may affect the overall calculated coefficient. Asan example and not by way of limitation, if a first user emails a seconduser, the weight or the rating for the action may be higher than if thefirst user simply views the user-profile page for the second user.

In particular embodiments, social-networking system 160 may calculate acoefficient based on the type of relationship between particularobjects. Referencing the social graph 200, social-networking system 160may analyze the number and/or type of edges 206 connecting particularuser nodes 202 and concept nodes 204 when calculating a coefficient. Asan example and not by way of limitation, user nodes 202 that areconnected by a spouse-type edge (representing that the two users aremarried) may be assigned a higher coefficient than a user nodes 202 thatare connected by a friend-type edge. In other words, depending upon theweights assigned to the actions and relationships for the particularuser, the overall affinity may be determined to be higher for contentabout the user's spouse than for content about the user's friend. Inparticular embodiments, the relationships a user has with another objectmay affect the weights and/or the ratings of the user's actions withrespect to calculating the coefficient for that object. As an exampleand not by way of limitation, if a user is tagged in first photo, butmerely likes a second photo, social-networking system 160 may determinethat the user has a higher coefficient with respect to the first photothan the second photo because having a tagged-in-type relationship withcontent may be assigned a higher weight and/or rating than having alike-type relationship with content. In particular embodiments,social-networking system 160 may calculate a coefficient for a firstuser based on the relationship one or more second users have with aparticular object. In other words, the connections and coefficientsother users have with an object may affect the first user's coefficientfor the object. As an example and not by way of limitation, if a firstuser is connected to or has a high coefficient for one or more secondusers, and those second users are connected to or have a highcoefficient for a particular object, social-networking system 160 maydetermine that the first user should also have a relatively highcoefficient for the particular object. In particular embodiments, thecoefficient may be based on the degree of separation between particularobjects. The lower coefficient may represent the decreasing likelihoodthat the first user will share an interest in content objects of theuser that is indirectly connected to the first user in the social graph200. As an example and not by way of limitation, social-graph entitiesthat are closer in the social graph 200 (i.e., fewer degrees ofseparation) may have a higher coefficient than entities that are furtherapart in the social graph 200.

In particular embodiments, social-networking system 160 may calculate acoefficient based on location information. Objects that aregeographically closer to each other may be considered to be more relatedor of more interest to each other than more distant objects. Inparticular embodiments, the coefficient of a user towards a particularobject may be based on the proximity of the object's location to acurrent location associated with the user (or the location of a clientsystem 130 of the user). A first user may be more interested in otherusers or concepts that are closer to the first user. As an example andnot by way of limitation, if a user is one mile from an airport and twomiles from a gas station, social-networking system 160 may determinethat the user has a higher coefficient for the airport than the gasstation based on the proximity of the airport to the user.

In particular embodiments, social-networking system 160 may performparticular actions with respect to a user based on coefficientinformation. Coefficients may be used to predict whether a user willperform a particular action based on the user's interest in the action.A coefficient may be used when generating or presenting any type ofobjects to a user, such as advertisements, search results, news stories,media, messages, notifications, or other suitable objects. Thecoefficient may also be utilized to rank and order such objects, asappropriate. In this way, social-networking system 160 may provideinformation that is relevant to user's interests and currentcircumstances, increasing the likelihood that they will find suchinformation of interest. In particular embodiments, social-networkingsystem 160 may generate content based on coefficient information.Content objects may be provided or selected based on coefficientsspecific to a user. As an example and not by way of limitation, thecoefficient may be used to generate media for the user, where the usermay be presented with media for which the user has a high overallcoefficient with respect to the media object. As another example and notby way of limitation, the coefficient may be used to generateadvertisements for the user, where the user may be presented withadvertisements for which the user has a high overall coefficient withrespect to the advertised object. In particular embodiments,social-networking system 160 may generate search results based oncoefficient information. Search results for a particular user may bescored or ranked based on the coefficient associated with the searchresults with respect to the querying user. As an example and not by wayof limitation, search results corresponding to objects with highercoefficients may be ranked higher on a search-results page than resultscorresponding to objects having lower coefficients.

In particular embodiments, social-networking system 160 may calculate acoefficient in response to a request for a coefficient from a particularsystem or process. To predict the likely actions a user may take (or maybe the subject of) in a given situation, any process may request acalculated coefficient for a user. The request may also include a set ofweights to use for various factors used to calculate the coefficient.This request may come from a process running on the online socialnetwork, from a third-party system 170 (e.g., via an API or othercommunication channel), or from another suitable system. In response tothe request, social-networking system 160 may calculate the coefficient(or access the coefficient information if it has previously beencalculated and stored). In particular embodiments, social-networkingsystem 160 may measure an affinity with respect to a particular process.Different processes (both internal and external to the online socialnetwork) may request a coefficient for a particular object or set ofobjects. Social-networking system 160 may provide a measure of affinitythat is relevant to the particular process that requested the measure ofaffinity. In this way, each process receives a measure of affinity thatis tailored for the different context in which the process will use themeasure of affinity.

In connection with social-graph affinity and affinity coefficients,particular embodiments may utilize one or more systems, components,elements, functions, methods, operations, or steps disclosed in U.S.patent application Ser. No. 11/503,093, filed 11 Aug. 2006, U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 12/977,027, filed 22 Dec. 2010, U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 12/978,265, filed 23 Dec. 2010, and U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 13/632,869, field 1 Oct. 2012, each of which isincorporated by reference.

Advertising

In particular embodiments, an advertisement may be text (which may beHTML-linked), one or more images (which may be HTML-linked), one or morevideos, audio, one or more ADOBE FLASH files, a suitable combination ofthese, or any other suitable advertisement in any suitable digitalformat presented on one or more pages, in one or more e-mails, or inconnection with search results requested by a user). In addition or asan alternative, an advertisement may be one or more sponsored stories(e.g. a newsfeed or ticker item on social-networking system 160), or maybe one or more sponsored queries (e.g., a suggested query referencing aparticular object). A sponsored story or query may include a referenceto a social action by a user (such as “liking” a page, “liking” orcommenting on a post on a page, RSVPing to an event associated with apage, voting on a question posted on a page, checking in to a place,using an application or playing a game, or “liking” or sharing awebsite) that an advertiser promotes by, for example, having the socialaction presented within a pre-determined area of a profile page of auser or other page, presented with additional information associatedwith the advertiser, bumped up or otherwise highlighted within newsfeeds or tickers of other users, or otherwise promoted. The advertisermay pay to have the social action promoted.

In particular embodiments, an advertisement may be requested for displaywithin social-networking-system pages, third-party webpages, or otherpages. An advertisement may be displayed in a dedicated portion of apage, such as in a banner area at the top of the page, in a column atthe side of the page, in a GUI of the page, in a pop-up window, in adrop-down menu, in an input field of the page, over the top of contentof the page, or elsewhere with respect to the page. In addition or as analternative, an advertisement may be displayed within an application. Anadvertisement may be displayed within dedicated pages, requiring theuser to interact with or watch the advertisement before the user mayaccess a page or utilize an application. The user may, for example viewthe advertisement through a web browser.

A user may interact with an advertisement in any suitable manner. Theuser may click or otherwise select the advertisement. By selecting theadvertisement, the user may be directed to (or a browser or otherapplication being used by the user) a page associated with theadvertisement. At the page associated with the advertisement, the usermay take additional actions, such as purchasing a product or serviceassociated with the advertisement, receiving information associated withthe advertisement, or subscribing to a newsletter associated with theadvertisement. An advertisement with audio or video may be played byselecting a component of the advertisement (like a “play button”).Alternatively, by selecting the advertisement, the social-networkingsystem 160 may execute or modify a particular action of the user. As anexample and not by way of limitation, advertisements may be includedamong the search results of a search-results page, where sponsoredcontent is promoted over non-sponsored content. As another example andnot by way of limitation, advertisements may be included among suggestedsearch queries, where suggested queries that reference the advertiser orits content/products may be promoted over non-sponsored queries.

An advertisement may include social-networking-system functionality thata user may interact with. For example, an advertisement may enable auser to “like” or otherwise endorse the advertisement by selecting anicon or link associated with endorsement. As another example, anadvertisement may enable a user to search (e.g., by executing a query)for content related to the advertiser. Similarly, a user may share theadvertisement with another user (e.g. through social-networking system160) or RSVP (e.g. through social-networking system 160) to an eventassociated with the advertisement. In addition or as an alternative, anadvertisement may include social-networking-system context directed tothe user. For example, an advertisement may display information about afriend of the user within social-networking system 160 who has taken anaction associated with the subject matter of the advertisement.

Systems and Methods

FIG. 15 illustrates an example computer system 1500. In particularembodiments, one or more computer systems 1500 perform one or more stepsof one or more methods described or illustrated herein. In particularembodiments, one or more computer systems 1500 provide functionalitydescribed or illustrated herein. In particular embodiments, softwarerunning on one or more computer systems 1500 performs one or more stepsof one or more methods described or illustrated herein or providesfunctionality described or illustrated herein. Particular embodimentsinclude one or more portions of one or more computer systems 1500.Herein, reference to a computer system may encompass a computing device,and vice versa, where appropriate. Moreover, reference to a computersystem may encompass one or more computer systems, where appropriate.

This disclosure contemplates any suitable number of computer systems1500. This disclosure contemplates computer system 1500 taking anysuitable physical form. As example and not by way of limitation,computer system 1500 may be an embedded computer system, asystem-on-chip (SOC), a single-board computer system (SBC) (such as, forexample, a computer-on-module (COM) or system-on-module (SOM)), adesktop computer system, a laptop or notebook computer system, aninteractive kiosk, a mainframe, a mesh of computer systems, a mobiletelephone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a server, a tabletcomputer system, or a combination of two or more of these. Whereappropriate, computer system 1500 may include one or more computersystems 1500; be unitary or distributed; span multiple locations; spanmultiple machines; span multiple data centers; or reside in a cloud,which may include one or more cloud components in one or more networks.Where appropriate, one or more computer systems 1500 may perform withoutsubstantial spatial or temporal limitation one or more steps of one ormore methods described or illustrated herein. As an example and not byway of limitation, one or more computer systems 1500 may perform in realtime or in batch mode one or more steps of one or more methods describedor illustrated herein. One or more computer systems 1500 may perform atdifferent times or at different locations one or more steps of one ormore methods described or illustrated herein, where appropriate.

In particular embodiments, computer system 1500 includes a processor1502, memory 1504, storage 1506, an input/output (I/O) interface 1508, acommunication interface 1510, and a bus 1512. Although this disclosuredescribes and illustrates a particular computer system having aparticular number of particular components in a particular arrangement,this disclosure contemplates any suitable computer system having anysuitable number of any suitable components in any suitable arrangement.

In particular embodiments, processor 1502 includes hardware forexecuting instructions, such as those making up a computer program. Asan example and not by way of limitation, to execute instructions,processor 1502 may retrieve (or fetch) the instructions from an internalregister, an internal cache, memory 1504, or storage 1506; decode andexecute them; and then write one or more results to an internalregister, an internal cache, memory 1504, or storage 1506. In particularembodiments, processor 1502 may include one or more internal caches fordata, instructions, or addresses. This disclosure contemplates processor1502 including any suitable number of any suitable internal caches,where appropriate. As an example and not by way of limitation, processor1502 may include one or more instruction caches, one or more datacaches, and one or more translation lookaside buffers (TLBs).Instructions in the instruction caches may be copies of instructions inmemory 1504 or storage 1506, and the instruction caches may speed upretrieval of those instructions by processor 1502. Data in the datacaches may be copies of data in memory 1504 or storage 1506 forinstructions executing at processor 1502 to operate on; the results ofprevious instructions executed at processor 1502 for access bysubsequent instructions executing at processor 1502 or for writing tomemory 1504 or storage 1506; or other suitable data. The data caches mayspeed up read or write operations by processor 1502. The TLBs may speedup virtual-address translation for processor 1502. In particularembodiments, processor 1502 may include one or more internal registersfor data, instructions, or addresses. This disclosure contemplatesprocessor 1502 including any suitable number of any suitable internalregisters, where appropriate. Where appropriate, processor 1502 mayinclude one or more arithmetic logic units (ALUs); be a multi-coreprocessor; or include one or more processors 1502. Although thisdisclosure describes and illustrates a particular processor, thisdisclosure contemplates any suitable processor.

In particular embodiments, memory 1504 includes main memory for storinginstructions for processor 1502 to execute or data for processor 1502 tooperate on. As an example and not by way of limitation, computer system1500 may load instructions from storage 1506 or another source (such as,for example, another computer system 1500) to memory 1504. Processor1502 may then load the instructions from memory 1504 to an internalregister or internal cache. To execute the instructions, processor 1502may retrieve the instructions from the internal register or internalcache and decode them. During or after execution of the instructions,processor 1502 may write one or more results (which may be intermediateor final results) to the internal register or internal cache. Processor1502 may then write one or more of those results to memory 1504. Inparticular embodiments, processor 1502 executes only instructions in oneor more internal registers or internal caches or in memory 1504 (asopposed to storage 1506 or elsewhere) and operates only on data in oneor more internal registers or internal caches or in memory 1504 (asopposed to storage 1506 or elsewhere). One or more memory buses (whichmay each include an address bus and a data bus) may couple processor1502 to memory 1504. Bus 1512 may include one or more memory buses, asdescribed below. In particular embodiments, one or more memorymanagement units (MMUs) reside between processor 1502 and memory 1504and facilitate accesses to memory 1504 requested by processor 1502. Inparticular embodiments, memory 1504 includes random access memory (RAM).This RAM may be volatile memory, where appropriate Where appropriate,this RAM may be dynamic RAM (DRAM) or static RAM (SRAM). Moreover, whereappropriate, this RAM may be single-ported or multi-ported RAM. Thisdisclosure contemplates any suitable RAM. Memory 1504 may include one ormore memories 1504, where appropriate. Although this disclosuredescribes and illustrates particular memory, this disclosurecontemplates any suitable memory.

In particular embodiments, storage 1506 includes mass storage for dataor instructions. As an example and not by way of limitation, storage1506 may include a hard disk drive (HDD), a floppy disk drive, flashmemory, an optical disc, a magneto-optical disc, magnetic tape, or aUniversal Serial Bus (USB) drive or a combination of two or more ofthese. Storage 1506 may include removable or non-removable (or fixed)media, where appropriate. Storage 1506 may be internal or external tocomputer system 1500, where appropriate. In particular embodiments,storage 1506 is non-volatile, solid-state memory. In particularembodiments, storage 1506 includes read-only memory (ROM). Whereappropriate, this ROM may be mask-programmed ROM, programmable ROM(PROM), erasable PROM (EPROM), electrically erasable PROM (EEPROM),electrically alterable ROM (EAROM), or flash memory or a combination oftwo or more of these. This disclosure contemplates mass storage 1506taking any suitable physical form. Storage 1506 may include one or morestorage control units facilitating communication between processor 1502and storage 1506, where appropriate. Where appropriate, storage 1506 mayinclude one or more storages 1506. Although this disclosure describesand illustrates particular storage, this disclosure contemplates anysuitable storage.

In particular embodiments, I/O interface 1508 includes hardware,software, or both, providing one or more interfaces for communicationbetween computer system 1500 and one or more I/O devices. Computersystem 1500 may include one or more of these I/O devices, whereappropriate. One or more of these I/O devices may enable communicationbetween a person and computer system 1500. As an example and not by wayof limitation, an I/O device may include a keyboard, keypad, microphone,monitor, mouse, printer, scanner, speaker, still camera, stylus, tablet,touch screen, trackball, video camera, another suitable I/O device or acombination of two or more of these. An I/O device may include one ormore sensors. This disclosure contemplates any suitable I/O devices andany suitable I/O interfaces 1508 for them. Where appropriate, I/Ointerface 1508 may include one or more device or software driversenabling processor 1502 to drive one or more of these I/O devices. I/Ointerface 1508 may include one or more I/O interfaces 1508, whereappropriate. Although this disclosure describes and illustrates aparticular I/O interface, this disclosure contemplates any suitable I/Ointerface.

In particular embodiments, communication interface 1510 includeshardware, software, or both providing one or more interfaces forcommunication (such as, for example, packet-based communication) betweencomputer system 1500 and one or more other computer systems 1500 or oneor more networks. As an example and not by way of limitation,communication interface 1510 may include a network interface controller(NIC) or network adapter for communicating with an Ethernet or otherwire-based network or a wireless NIC (WNIC) or wireless adapter forcommunicating with a wireless network, such as a WI-FI network. Thisdisclosure contemplates any suitable network and any suitablecommunication interface 1510 for it. As an example and not by way oflimitation, computer system 1500 may communicate with an ad hoc network,a personal area network (PAN), a local area network (LAN), a wide areanetwork (WAN), a metropolitan area network (MAN), or one or moreportions of the Internet or a combination of two or more of these. Oneor more portions of one or more of these networks may be wired orwireless. As an example, computer system 1500 may communicate with awireless PAN (WPAN) (such as, for example, a BLUETOOTH WPAN), a WI-FInetwork, a WI-MAX network, a cellular telephone network (such as, forexample, a Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) network), orother suitable wireless network or a combination of two or more ofthese. Computer system 1500 may include any suitable communicationinterface 1510 for any of these networks, where appropriate.Communication interface 1510 may include one or more communicationinterfaces 1510, where appropriate. Although this disclosure describesand illustrates a particular communication interface, this disclosurecontemplates any suitable communication interface.

In particular embodiments, bus 1512 includes hardware, software, or bothcoupling components of computer system 1500 to each other. As an exampleand not by way of limitation, bus 1512 may include an AcceleratedGraphics Port (AGP) or other graphics bus, an Enhanced Industry StandardArchitecture (EISA) bus, a front-side bus (FSB), a HYPERTRANSPORT (HT)interconnect, an Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) bus, an INFINIBANDinterconnect, a low-pin-count (LPC) bus, a memory bus, a Micro ChannelArchitecture (MCA) bus, a Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus, aPCI-Express (PCIe) bus, a serial advanced technology attachment (SATA)bus, a Video Electronics Standards Association local (VLB) bus, oranother suitable bus or a combination of two or more of these. Bus 1512may include one or more buses 1512, where appropriate. Although thisdisclosure describes and illustrates a particular bus, this disclosurecontemplates any suitable bus or interconnect.

Herein, a computer-readable non-transitory storage medium or media mayinclude one or more semiconductor-based or other integrated circuits(ICs) (such, as for example, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) orapplication-specific ICs (ASICs)), hard disk drives (HDDs), hybrid harddrives (HHDs), optical discs, optical disc drives (ODDs),magneto-optical discs, magneto-optical drives, floppy diskettes, floppydisk drives (FDDs), magnetic tapes, solid-state drives (SSDs),RAM-drives, SECURE DIGITAL cards or drives, any other suitablecomputer-readable non-transitory storage media, or any suitablecombination of two or more of these, where appropriate. Acomputer-readable non-transitory storage medium may be volatile,non-volatile, or a combination of volatile and non-volatile, whereappropriate.

Miscellaneous

Herein, “or” is inclusive and not exclusive, unless expressly indicatedotherwise or indicated otherwise by context. Therefore, herein, “A or B”means “A, B, or both,” unless expressly indicated otherwise or indicatedotherwise by context. Moreover, “and” is both joint and several, unlessexpressly indicated otherwise or indicated otherwise by context.Therefore, herein, “A and B” means “A and B, jointly or severally,”unless expressly indicated otherwise or indicated otherwise by context.

The scope of this disclosure encompasses all changes, substitutions,variations, alterations, and modifications to the example embodimentsdescribed or illustrated herein that a person having ordinary skill inthe art would comprehend. The scope of this disclosure is not limited tothe example embodiments described or illustrated herein. Moreover,although this disclosure describes and illustrates respectiveembodiments herein as including particular components, elements,feature, functions, operations, or steps, any of these embodiments mayinclude any combination or permutation of any of the components,elements, features, functions, operations, or steps described orillustrated anywhere herein that a person having ordinary skill in theart would comprehend. Furthermore, reference in the appended claims toan apparatus or system or a component of an apparatus or system beingadapted to, arranged to, capable of, configured to, enabled to, operableto, or operative to perform a particular function encompasses thatapparatus, system, component, whether or not it or that particularfunction is activated, turned on, or unlocked, as long as thatapparatus, system, or component is so adapted, arranged, capable,configured, enabled, operable, or operative.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method comprising, by a computing device:accessing a social graph comprising a plurality of nodes and a pluralityof edges connecting the nodes, each of the edges between two of thenodes representing a single degree of separation between them, the nodescomprising: a first node corresponding to a first user associated withan online social network; and a plurality of second nodes that eachcorrespond to a concept or a second user associated with the onlinesocial network; generating a plurality of structured queries that eachcomprise references to one or more nodes of the plurality of nodes andone or more edges of the plurality of edges, wherein at least one of thestructured queries is a dynamic query comprising a reference to one ormore updates to the social graph; and sending one or more of thegenerated structured queries to the first user for display on a pagecurrently accessed by the first user, wherein at least one of the sentstructured queries is a dynamic query.
 2. The method of claim 1, whereinthe one or more updates to the social graph comprise updates within athreshold period of time.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein the one ormore updates to the social graph comprise updates since a particularstructured query was last selected by the first user.
 4. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the one or more updates to the social graph comprisetrending activity on the online social network.
 5. The method of claim1, wherein the one or more updates to the social graph comprise trendingqueries of the online social network.
 6. The method of claim 5, whereinat least one of the dynamic queries comprises a reference to thetrending queries, the trending queries comprising references to one ormore nodes of the plurality of nodes previously searched for by one ormore second users of the plurality of users.
 7. The method of claim 1,wherein the one or more updates to the social graph comprise adding oneor more concept nodes to the social graph corresponding to one or morecontent objects added to the online social network, respectively.
 8. Themethod of claim 7, wherein at least one of the dynamic queries comprisesa reference to the concept nodes added to the social graph.
 9. Themethod of claim 7, wherein the content objects added to the onlinesocial network are content objects added within a threshold period oftime.
 10. The method of claim 7, wherein the content objects aremultimedia objects.
 11. The method of claim 7, wherein the contentobjects are posts by users of the online social network.
 12. The methodof claim 11, wherein the one or more updates to the social graphcomprise trending topics or keywords associated with the posts.
 13. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the one or more updates to the social graphcomprise updates to one or more edges connecting one or more secondnodes.
 14. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more updates to thesocial graph comprise updates performed by one or more second userswithin a threshold degree of separation.
 15. The method of claim 14,wherein the threshold degree of separation is one, two, three, or all.16. The method of claim 1, further comprising: accessing a priorstructured query previously selected by the first user; and identifyingchanges to the search results corresponding to the prior structuredquery; wherein at least one of the dynamic queries comprises the priorstructured and references to the identified changes to the searchresults corresponding to the prior structured query.
 17. The method ofclaim 16, wherein the identified changes to the search results arechanges within a threshold period of time.
 18. The method of claim 16,wherein the identified changes to the search results are changes sincethe prior structured query was last selected by the first user.
 19. Oneor more computer-readable non-transitory storage media embodyingsoftware that is operable when executed to: access a social graphcomprising a plurality of nodes and a plurality of edges connecting thenodes, each of the edges between two of the nodes representing a singledegree of separation between them, the nodes comprising: a first nodecorresponding to a first user associated with an online social network;and a plurality of second nodes that each correspond to a concept or asecond user associated with the online social network; generate aplurality of structured queries that each comprise references to one ormore nodes of the plurality of nodes and one or more edges of theplurality of edges, wherein at least one of the structured queries is adynamic query comprising a reference one or more updates to the socialgraph; and send one or more of the generated structured queries to thefirst user for display on a page currently accessed by the first user,wherein at least one of the sent structured queries is a dynamic query.20. A system comprising: one or more processors; and a memory coupled tothe processors comprising instructions executable by the processors, theprocessors operable when executing the instructions to: access a socialgraph comprising a plurality of nodes and a plurality of edgesconnecting the nodes, each of the edges between two of the nodesrepresenting a single degree of separation between them, the nodescomprising: a first node corresponding to a first user associated withan online social network; and a plurality of second nodes that eachcorrespond to a concept or a second user associated with the onlinesocial network; generate a plurality of structured queries that eachcomprise references to one or more nodes of the plurality of nodes andone or more edges of the plurality of edges, wherein at least one of thestructured queries is a dynamic query comprising a reference one or moreupdates to the social graph; and send one or more of the generatedstructured queries to the first user for display on a page currentlyaccessed by the first user, wherein at least one of the sent structuredqueries is a dynamic query.